Handful
by charliedee
Summary: With new life breathed into the dying Uchiha clan thanks to Sakura, the patriarch Sasuke couldn't be happier with his little bundle of joy. In the midst of their happiness would come the natural hardships of raising a child, something they expected, but they never expected a vengeful Karin paving a life a little too close for comfort to their own lives. Sequel to Surrogacy.
1. Chapter 1

_Handful_

_-chapter 1-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

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_This story is a sequel to my story 'Surrogacy' so some of the main factors of this story will most likely not make sense. I wont force you to read Surrogacy but it will benefit your experience! Check out my page if you are interested!_

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A month after the famous Konoha Fall Festival, Sasuke found himself quite annoyed.

He was doing the usual, changing sweet little Makoto's diaper, when he suddenly became not so sweet. As he pulled back the diaper to clean him up, a steady stream of baby pee suddenly came out from behind the diaper and hit him square in the chest, which thankfully was clothed. He was so startled this early in the morning that he jumped back in pure surprise, his eyes wide with shock then immediately filled the the uttermost dread he could ever compile.

When the stream of pee ceased he threateningly stepped forward to find his son looking back at him with a curiously content face, looking upon his father to see what it was that was wrong, as if peeing on him did not effect him in any way. With an inquisitive gurgle, Mako stuck a few of his fingers into his mouth, seemingly acting as innocent as he could in front of his fuming father.

Pressing his lips into a thin line, Sasuke hurriedly cleaned his son up and changed his diaper before marching over to the master bedroom where Sakura laid in the bed, awake but begging sleep to take over her again. When he entered the room she cracked an eye open to him with a small smile. "How come you're bringing him in here? He usually sleeps after he gets changed in the mornings."

"_Your_ son peed on me." He growled as he stomped over to the bed and laid Mako down beside his mothers figure, all the while shrill chills ran down his spine. He began to carefully peel his t-shirt off his body and threw it into the hamper beside the en suite bathroom door.

"Oh, so he's my son now?" She chuckled and kissed Mako on his forehead. "I told you that would happen one day but you refused to listen to me."

Sasuke still refused to believe his son had the audacity to pee on him, so he stomped into the bathroom and started the shower quite angrily.

She merely shook her head with a slight chuckle, giving Mako another kiss. "Your daddy is ridiculous, you know that? Well you must know, since you peed on him. You're a good boy." She smiled and reached over her son to the bedside table on Sasuke's side of the bed and swiped the few items off it's surface. She sat up so she faced her son and showed him the items she grabbed and she could see the immediate light in his eyes. In her hand she held a cotton ball, a grey fake feather, tissue, a soft hair brush, and a small piece of torn cloth.

To promote his body awareness and tactile stimulation, she would play the 'Tickle Me Game' with Mako every other day, something he enjoyed to the fullest. She started with the hairbrush and as gently as she could, brushed its plastic bristles against his super sensitive skin and raised a curious brow to him. He cracked the tiniest smile at the sensation and yanked his small chubby leg away from the brush with a gurgle. Laughing lightly, she swapped the brush for a tissue and gently slid it across the skin of his feet, earning wide green eyes that looked startled but his confusion turned into joy as he let out another joyful coo to his mother.

"Isn't this soft, Mako?" She continued to rub the soft tissue against his feet and hands until his excitement for that feeling died out and he anxiously awaited the next one. She picked up the cotton ball and held it in front of his eyes, looking bewildered as he gazed at it's fuzzy surface. "This one is even softer..." She started as she gleefully rubbed its surface against the palm of his hand and led it up toward his cheek. To this one he let out a long surprised coo and waved his little hands up in the air near his mothers face.

When Sasuke finished up in the bathroom, he eyes his son carefully from the crack in the doorway. As he toweled off his sopping wet hair, his son glanced over at him with his not so innocent green eyes and Sasuke knew that this was only the start.

So the next time it was his turn to change Mako was when they arrived at Sakura's parents house later that day, and Sasuke was sure that his son could not do such a heinous act twice in a day, and especially since Sasuke was all alone against her parents.

He took Mako into the bathroom, narrowly avoiding Kizashi and his hateful glare, and placed some blankets down on the counter top where he would lay Mako. Once that was done, he lifted the diaper bag onto the counter, weary of keeping an eye on Mako, and began to cautiously undo the tabs on the dirty diaper. He held his fingers on the boys chest to keep his secure and as he averted his eyes to the diaper bag to grab a fresh diaper is when it happened and he swore to the Gods it was on purpose.

This time it skyrocketed upwards like a powerful fountain then when it's force began to die down it landed on his shoulder until the boys bladder was emptied.

Sasuke stood there in absolute shock. He wondered if this child was really his because an _Uchiha_ would never do such a disgusting act but upon remembering that his son was not conceived the natural way he knew it be true. Mako lay there with his middle and index fingers shoved in his mouth while his big green eyes sparkled underneath the hanging bathroom lights. He concluded that it must have come from Sakura's side of the family. "You are to never do that to me again." He told him strictly as he quickly finished the job and fastened the tabs on the fresh diaper. "Why don't you do this to your mom?"

Scowling once more, he clicked the small buttons on Mako's white onesie and contemplated one what to do next. He set the diaper bag on one side of Mako while on Mako's other side he set the wicker basket of toiletries in case he felt like rolling around. He stripped himself of his dark colored shirt and smirked as he rifled through the diaper bag. He'd brought an extra shirt just for this type of situation.

When he found Sakura thankfully alone in the kitchen grabbing a snack, he plopped Mako into her arms. "Why is your shirt different?"

"The little monster peed on me."

She only smiled and stared down at her little boy. "Good boy, Mako!"

Later on that day he refused to change Mako's diaper again unless Sakura undid the tabs first so he could see if Mako peed on her or not. So as he leaned against the door frame of Mako's nursery, he eyeballed the two of them, Sakura beginning to undo the tabs on his diaper. It was like slow motion for him, watching as he expected the pee to come jolting out from behind the front of the diaper but with Sakura's smiling face in front of him, he knew his son would do no such thing as pee on her.

"He's probably run out of pee by now, Sasuke. I think you're fine." Sakura mocked him playfully, walking passed him in the door frame and playfully smacking his chest. She paced down the hallway and disappeared into their bedroom.

Sasuke puckered out his lips like a stubborn little fish and stalked over to the changing table where his sons dirty diaper was still half on him. "Only because your mother's around, isn't it.." Sasuke began to peel the front of the diaper back, only looking down at pulled open drawer to grab a fresh diaper when he heard his son let out a small grunt and the sound of liquid echoed through his head like a nightmare.

He thanked his lucky stars the diaper wasn't fully pulled back or he would have been doused in the pee once more from his devilish little son that he couldn't stay mad at. He knew that although his son was still just a newborn he had it out for the older Uchiha and he warned himself to brace for the worst with this kid. He was to be quite a handful.

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_Hi guys! To all of the old readers from Surrogacy and to the new readers, I welcome you to the second part! If it sounded short it's because it was meant to be short, it was introducing Sasuke's relationship with his son before I have the actual time skip going on. Like in Surrogacy, I had a lot of reviews want Mako to take a pee on Sasuke so here it is! Sorry you had to wait for a sequel! _

_So this isn't going to turn out to be a fanfic where I just write cute little moments. It's going to have structure. A plot, character development, the return of Karin and what she brings (Ooooohhh, cue scary music), more kids? More drama?! Oh my goodness! _

_You'll have to review to find out, though! Even just a simple small review tells me there are readers, so leave one if you like it! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	2. Chapter 2

_Handful_

_-chapter 2-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

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"Tummy time~!" Sakura cooed gently as she held Mako underneath his chubby arms and rubbed her nose just up against his cutely. At three months old Mako was now able to fully support his own head and could crack the most heart warming smile she'd ever seen. She snuggled him close before kneeling down and carefully placing him down on the large blue blanket she laid out on the floor where a number of his toys were placed.

"Here you go sweetie." She herself laid down onto her stomach, propping her elbows onto the plush blanket and her chin on her hands, she fondly watched as her son puckered his lips and reached for a stuffed cat. Lately Mako had been mimicking the faces his parents and family friends would make, entertaining anyone in his cute presence. When she could see Mako's eyes drift over to her face as he stuffed half of the cats head into his mouth, Sakura pulled a silly face with her tongue out.

Mako took a moment to analyze that face before he cracked a beautiful smile with a slight gurgle. He tried his very best to try and stick his tongue out but it only managed to reach his bottom lip, but he was still thoroughly entertained. He thrashed the cat around in his hand happily with breathy giggles, staring up at his mother lovingly with sparkling green eyes.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" She pushed herself up off the floor and crawled over to the white dress propped up against the wall, beginning to throw open drawers and rifle through their contents. "Your Uncle Naruto is visiting today! Here it is..." She pulled out a little onesie from the drawers and crawled back to the curious baby. "He bought you a onesie I bet he wants you to wear.."

Sakura burst out laughing when Mako pulled a face that resembled that of his fathers own face, raising a single brow at the piece of clothing in her hands, looking unsure about it. "You're going to have to wear it." She turned Mako so he was on his back and undid the buttons on his green onesie, pulling it off before she carefully shimmied the new onesie onto him, looking quite triumphant.

It was an orange onesie. Like his face suggested it was quite the eyesore but to please an old friend she would have to force her precious baby to wear the thing. It wasn't just the color that she wasn't too fond with, it was how it resembled Naruto's first orange jumpsuit completely down to the blue accents and the white collar. Sasuke would kill her if he knew she was allowing the Uchiha heir to wear such a thing but she snickered at the sight anyways.

In the distance she could hear the rapid sound of footsteps approaching and the door to the nursery was slammed wide open. There stood Naruto for some odd reason wearing amazingly pristine Hokage cloak and orange and black jumpsuit. "Mako!" He grimaced and greedily took a seat right in front of Mako so he could start playing with the baby's little hands. "Hey Sakura! I see you dressed him... In my baby onesie!"

She rolled her eyes as she stood up and rubbed her hands together. "Only for you, Naruto, but I'm warning you if Sasuke sees that he will flip out."

"_What kind of shinobi wears orange_?" Naruto mocked the Uchiha playfully with a pouted angry face and moved his fingers in a motion that looked like a mouth. He scoffed to himself and looked back down at the curious child who watched these two adults with the cat's ear stuck in his mouth. Leaning in, he whispered. "The best kind of shinobi!"

"You're busy nowadays, aren't you Naruto?" He nodded to her words as he stuck his tongue out at Mako. "So why are you here? I mean you rarely have time to get out of the office so I doubt you'd waste your time paying a visit here."

"Aaah, yeah. There was something I needed to talk to you about, Sakura." Naruto pulled Mako up carefully underneath his arms and held him so his bare feet touched the blanket. "It's not something stupid either."

Sakura tapped her lips with her index finger curiously. She didn't want to say that when he said it wasn't something stupid it narrowed down the topics of discussion by a lot... And it could only mean a few things. "Is it something about Karin?"

"What? No! Nothing about her! It's something good."

"Then I know what it is!"

"Yeah?! What is it?!" Naruto grimaced, carefully lay Mako back on his belly to stand up excitedly, facing Sakura's who's eyes were big and sparkly and anxiously awaiting to reply.

"It's about Hinata...!?"

"Yeah!"

"Are you going to propose, Naruto?!"

"AAHH!? WAS IT THAT EASY TO GUESS?!"

"Yes! Tell me what you're thinking!" Sakura promptly sat down beside her son and grabbed Naruto's hand, roughly pulling him down to their level. "Tell me all about it!"

"Ah!" He vigorously ran his fingers through his hair. "I just don't know what to do! I'm so confused about all of this!"

"So you came to me for advice...?"

"Well, yeah, you're smart and a girl so I need some girl advice!"

"Well do you have any ideas?"

Naruto groaned and smacked his face, earning a laugh from Mako who was being entertained by these two's excitement. "I have no freakin' clue! She's so shy it'd have to be in private!"

"Well that's a start!" Sakura started happily, clapping her hands together with a sly grin. "In private, like where? Do you know any beautiful secluded spots that you could take her to?"

"There's a few... But I'm scared she's going to know what I'm gonna do if I do that and she'll back out!"

Sakura snorted at that comment, pleasing her son to no ends as he burst out into a fit of baby giggles and coos. "Naruto she's been waiting for this moment her entire life, trust me. If she thinks something fishy is up she'd let it happen. If you think she'd back out then you are blind!"

"Wha?"

"Naruto.." She sighed as her little tidbit of hope for Naruto vanished into thin air. "From the beginning of our academy days Hinata's had the biggest crush on you. She dotted on your every request without even batting an eyelash, even if it was a lot of work for herself, she did it for you! Then when she declared her love for you on the battlefield - oh God, she's so head over heels for you."

"You girls in love, I swear, that sounds exactly like you were!"

Come to think of it, that description did ring a bell.. She shook off the embarrassing memories and looked back at Naruto sternly. "Look, what I'm saying is there's nothing to worry about. You can be the biggest idiot version of yourself and she wouldn't even notice, I mean, I guess that's what she loves. You can screw up during your little spiel and she'll still take it and love it and remember it for years." She sighed dreamily. "And you have to make sure the ring is just perfect-"

"Sakura, Sakura, Sakura... That asshole still hasn't proposed, hmmm...~? Looks like I'm the better man!"

"Sasuke gave me the greatest gift he could ever give me and I'm not expecting anything more."

"But I know you want to get married, Sakura. You and Ino had that scrapbook when we were just academy kids with tons of pictures of dresses and themes and cakes!" Naruto snickered loudly and pulled a dramatic goofy face for Mako who was listening in on their conversation, who then gurgled in response and tried to do the same face. "I know you want a big grand expensive ceremony that'll make your dad take every shift at the hospital just to pay it off!"

"I was going to say what girl doesn't want that, but I'd imagine Hinata wouldn't want the whole world taking part in her wedding. And I know Sasuke wouldn't want an overly large wedding, short temper and general dislike for most of the people in our year and all... Mako, no no." Sakura gently pulled the majority of his small cat plush from his mouth so he wouldn't end up choking to death. "Play with your little rattle instead..." She handed Mako a small white and yellow rattle that made a horrible noise when moved and since Mako recently learned how to thrash his toys around she regretted the decision.

Naruto smiled fondly at the little boy, his heart warming. "I can't wait to have kids!"

"You're going to wait a little bit for that, don't you think? You have so much work on your shoulders already and babies aren't as easy as you think. It's remarkable Mako has kept his temper this long, I think he only does it when people are around."

"You gotta start while you're still young! I don't want to be an old wrinkled man when my kid needs me to teach them how to run up a tree and teach them jutsu's! It's gotta be soon, if Hinata's alright with it."

"You're so naive Naruto." She smiled and picked Mako up off the floor and cradled him close to her chest. "You barely get any sleep right now plus the hours awake from tending to a child, you wont make it."

"But it's not like I'm gonna be a single parent! Hinata would obviously help!"

"She's going to need her rest after the baby is born though, you're going to have to step up."

"Did Sasuke step up after you had Mako?"

She chuckled lightly at the fond memories of him changing a real diaper for the first time. "Yes he did, partly because he knew if he made me do everything he wouldn't be living to see his sons second day on this Earth."

"Well! Urgh, I still want a little baby, I already have a list of names..."

Both Sakura's and Naruto's heads snapped up when they heard a snort from the hallway and they turned to see Sasuke leaning against the archway with a mocking look on his face.

"Don't be mean, Sasuke." She warned with a smile as she tried to gently pry Mako's curious fingers from her long pink locks. "And you - no more hair pulling!"

Sasuke took a few strides forward and pulled Mako into his arms, looking down at him sternly. It was a daring look that said 'I dare you to pull my hair.' Mako indeed had a tendency to make parenting easier for his mother who dotted on his every need. He'd still cry in the night for attention or to be fed or rocked back to sleep, but when it was his mother who tiredly drug her feet into his nursery he always seemed to shut up almost instantly. This was the opposite for Sasuke. Whenever he regretfully climbed out of bed and looked down into the crib Mako continued crying loudly. Sakura liked to think it was because he found amusement in Sasuke's angry face.

"Okay okay, Sasuke go away! I'm talking to Sakura, alone!"

"Why?"

"Because you're an asshole and you'll judge everything I say so go away!"

Again, Sasuke scoffed at the words that came out of Naruto's mouth. "It's my house."

"It's Sakura's house too!"

"Alright, shut up, both of you. I'll walk Naruto out and you can stay here and continue tummy time with Mako." She looked between the two boys, waiting for a response that she knew she wouldn't get because whenever the two feuded she was always left out.

"Hn." Was the only thing Sasuke gave as he promptly sat down on the blanket and carefully set Mako down onto his tummy. Mako pushed his little arms against the ground so he could look up at his father curiously, who had presumably just returned from an anbu mission, seeing as how he wore the outfit minus the heavy grey flak jacket.

Sakura and Naruto stood up and padded out of the room, and as Mako watched his mother leave, he looked back at his father who continued to stare down at him sternly. Mako blinked a few times before he reached over to curl his fingers over the fuzzy little cat that he loved to chew, swapping his large green eyes between the man and the cat, not sure which one was more important to play with. He decided that he liked getting a reaction when he played so he dropped the cat back down and stared back up to his papa.

When his father continued to be boring and just stare at him he let out a long whine for attention but yet there he was, still on his stomach doing nothing! Mako gurgled a tiny bit before grasping the cat and focusing all of his attention on the toy.

As Sakura and Naruto slowly walked through the large hallway and eventually found themselves in front of the front door to the manse, Sakura gave the blonde an earnest, sincere look. "You didn't need to come here for an opinion specifically, anybody would have told you that anything you choose to do for the proposal will work out in the end. As long as it's not in public where'd she'd be too shy to answer." Both old team mates laughed heartily. "Seriously, Hinata loves you and knows that what you pick will be the best. She's always thought that way."

Smiling nervously but brightly as usual, Naruto smacked a hand down on Sakura's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Yeah, you're right Sakura, you always are. Hehe, I'll make sure to get that jerk to hurry up and make you a married woman soon."

She shook her head playfully. "I'll be counting on it, then."

When they said their goodbye's Sakura hopped up the stairs and slipped into the nursery, watching as both father and son stared at each other. Sliding her hands underneath Mako's arms, she heaved him up against her chest and looked down at Sasuke. "I'm going to go feed him downstairs."

"Why, there's a chair right there."

"It's been sitting in the sun all day, it's probably hot." She stated and as she took a step forward, Mako purposely and with heft, tossed the small stuffed cat so it hit Sasuke square in the face. Sakura stopped and stared at Sasuke as he pursed his lips together in a thin line and breathed in noisily through his nose. "You have to admit our son has impeccable aim."

All Sasuke could do as she left the room giggling was roll his eyes angrily and toss the stupid cat to the other side of the nursery. Then it hit him.. "Get my son out of that ridiculous outfit!" He could still hear her continuously laughing at his anger.

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_Oh my gosh Naruto's going to propose to Hinata! Sorry if that pairing offends any of my viewers here, but throughout Surrogacy I've been hinting NaruHina so yeah! _

_Oh God, you guys, 12 reviews on the first chapter? On Surrogacy I got 0 reviews, hehe! Thank you guys so much for giving me the Go on this story, so officially this will be written out until finished! It will more than likely be longer than surrogacy with hopefully longer chapters, yada yada. There's a lot of fun things we can do with a naughty little son and Sasuke's extremely short temper so I'm more than open to any ideas that I can squeeze in!  
I can only do so if you review, so review please and thanks in advance! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	3. Chapter 3

_Handful_

_-chapter 3-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

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It wasn't long after Naruto visited Sakura that he did the deed.

But before that, he forced Sasuke to take a 'walk' with him to chat about upcoming missions he needed Sasuke to attend.

As they walked through the semi crowded streets, Sasuke's patience slowly dwindled as Naruto just looked forward with a slightly embarrassed look on his face. "Hurry up and tell me what you need me to do." He didn't quite understand why Naruto couldn't have just sent a messenger bird to his house, but knowing Naruto, he liked to tick him off.

"Well the funny thing is - that's not why I asked you to come with me... Ehehh.." The blonde stopped abruptly in the street with a guilty sheepish grin on his face. "I know you're pretty busy with a baby and having to take on anbu tasks, but..." Naruto pointed upwards to a large sign above the doorway with a flick of his pleading blue eyes.

Sasuke looked up and read the sign. _Hoshi Family Run Jeweler's_. He blinked a few times before it struck him, slightly shocked was the least he could say, but he wasn't in the least bit interested in taking part of this. He had better things to do. "So, you're going to buy a ring."

Naruto furiously nodded. "Yep! You're coming in with me!" Just as Sasuke opened his mouth to protest, Naruto gripped the fabric of his shirt and forced him through the door. The small bell above the doorway jingled lightly, signaling their entrance to the store and alerting the elderly woman she had potential costumers.

Her mouth formed an 'o' shape and she quickly shuffled out from behind the counter and made her way in front of the two men, giving them a slight bow when she arrived before them. "The Hokage! What a pleasure! Is there something in particular we can assist you with?"

Naruto cracked a grin like he did every other time someone addressed him as Hokage. "Yeah, actually, we're looking for engagement rings! Can you show us where those are?" Again, Sasuke wanted to protest that he had no intention of staying with him through this, Naruto dragged him along to follow the old woman to a glass counter.

She unlocked it with a gold key around her neck and grabbed a large purple velvet case where she plopped it onto the counter. "These rings are the best we have in the store!" She pulled the velvet blanket off the rings, showing off the most spectacular glittery rings. "Do you have any idea as to what cut you want?"

"What's a cut?" He deadpanned with a guilty scratch to the back of the head while Sasuke rolled his eyes out of boredom, leaning against the counter as he looked somewhat over his shoulder to the rings.

"Alright, well this here is a Princess cut... Cushion cut, heart, pear, marquise, radiant, asscher, emerald, and oval. There's also just a plain old round diamond cut."

"Hmmm." Naruto tapped his chin and eyeballed the different styled rings he could choose from. "It's so hard, they're all nice! Which one suits her, though.. Sasuke?"

"I can barely remember her name so I'm not suited to choose what she'd want."

"What?!"

"Are you speaking of Hinata?" The woman piped up curiously. "She's so shy I doubt she would want anything too extravagant."

"Yeah, you're right!" Naruto tore his angered gaze away from Sasuke and peered back down into the horde of rings. "I like this one shaped like a heart!"

"Yes, it's very beautiful. White gold, pure amethyst, all of these tiny little diamonds.."

"Could you see her wearing this Sasuke?!" Naruto held up the ring into the light, proudly beaming as he imagined his future wife having this huge stone on her finger.

"Sure."

"Hey you weren't even looking!"

"Many men like to sleep on deciding the ring. It's a very big decision.." She started but Naruto interrupted her.

"No no, I'm positive this is the ring for Hinata. I can feel it in my bones!"

This entire time Sasuke just wanted to go back home and eat something.

"Now you can choose a ring box! What color do you think you'd want?"

"Probably a plain old white one, so it doesn't freak her out. Show me what you got." Naruto tapped his fingers against the glass beneath his hands until she brought over their selection of white boxes, and he saw the perfect one. "That one! The white wooden one!" He grabbed the box and held it in his hands, flipping it around, and opened it up and stuck the ring in there, examining it further. "It looks perfect!"

"It does! I never thought the White lacquered wooden box would go so well with this ring..!"

"I'll take these both!" The woman nodded and shuffled off, leaving Naruto to turn back to Sasuke with a grimace.

"Now, we're going to look for something for Sakura." He wiggled his eyebrows with a sly grin, rapping his knuckles on the glass. "Come on, we're here now so it wouldn't hurt to look!" When Sasuke didn't reply to Naruto's advances he let out a sigh. "I know she wants to get married, so just hurry up and do it already! She gave you a freakin' kid!"

"I'm not heeding your advice." He scowled and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You know I think you're wrong. You love each other, and your son was born out of wedlock. You don't want your future kids being born out of wedlock, do you? Isn't there something about 'bastard' kids in a prestigious clan like your own? Plus it'll make her so happy!"

"Are you ready to leave yet?" The Uchiha drawled. Naruto certainly wasn't the first person to prod him about popping the question. Tsunade, for instance, caught him while he was handing in a report at the manse and tried to scare him into buying her the best ring he could find, and the one with the highest price tag. He didn't see proposing that way, though, because to him the ring didn't matter. He was going to do in when he felt was the right time. Perhaps Naruto found his right time but Sasuke would figure that out on his own.

But whilst Naruto was gushing about the heart cut ring he spied, Sasuke found the perfect ring from the corner of his eye.

...

After Naruto had proposed to Hinata, he swaggered into the Uchiha house looking unusually smug. Sakura was the first to notice his presence from her spot beside Sasuke on the couch, giving the blonde a gentle smile and she rubbed Mako's back slowly.

"Hey Naruto, what are you doing here?"

Naruto gave her the look that consisted of a raised brow and an even more smug smirk. "Do you reallllly have to ask that Sakura?"

She gasped loudly. "Are you serious Naruto!?"

"Yup!"

"Oh my God!" She quickly and gently placed Mako into his fathers arms and darted across the room until she stopped in front of Naruto with a grin plastered on her face. "Tell me everything that happened! In detail!" She happily grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the couch. She sat down in a delighted manner, pulling her knees up to her chin and looking at him with glistening eyes. Sasuke could see now that she was a sucker for this kind of thing.

"Well like we talked about we went for a walk where there was no people, and I swear she didn't see it coming because when I whipped out that box with the ring she was sooo shocked and tears were pouring from her eyes."

"Awww~!"

"Yeah! She loved the ring too!"

"Tell me what it looks like! Nono, I'll just see it next time I see Hinata!"

While the two gushed, Mako accepted defeat that his mothers attention wasn't on him, so he in turn, looked up at his father who seemed irritated at the moment. He looked as if he didn't care about anything his mother and the loud one were blabbering on about, his face completely plain except for slight twitch in his brown whenever the blonde man's voice raised loudly. He cracked a smile because he found this face entertaining - seeing as how he was lacking a toy in his hand and his mother was tickling his feet, he found whatever else there was to be a source of entertaining. So he lightly cackled before breathing out a breath of air and straightening his face to try and mimic the face his father had. He didn't quite have full control of doing that eyebrow twitch but when he made that face he certainly did look like his fathers son.

When he noticed his father look down at him somewhat curiously he burst out into a fit of breathy giggles, attracting the attention of the other two in the room. His dearest mommy scooped him up into her arms and planted many kisses allllll over his face.

As Sakura was doing so, Naruto popped up off the couch and eyed Sasuke, squinting his blue eyes in the other mans directions and mouthed the word _soon_. As he did so, he held up his left hand and pointed to the ring finger, giving the Uchiha a sharp stare before making his way toward the door. "Anyway Sakura I've gotta go sign some stuff and meet some people, make sure to go see Hinata soon!"

"Yes I will! I'll see you later Naruto." She smiled as she snuggled Mako and waved goodbye as he left the room, turning her attention to Sasuke. "Isn't that amazing? I always thought he wouldn't have the guts to do it back in the day.." She sighed dreamily, looking off into the distance.

As she did so, Sasuke sighed to himself because he knew he had to absolutely propose soon or she was going to go insane.

* * *

_Augh Naruto and Hinata are engaged! I also have two pictures of the ring Naruto picked out for Hinata, and the one Sasuke has for Sakura, I'll post those on my profile since I tried my best to sneakily get a link into the doc haha. Also, for Sasuke's 'proposal' I have an idea but I'd love to hear what you guys would like! My idea is super plain so if you guys are great at thinking these kind of situations up, tell me! _

_Also, I'm graduating high school ! Woot woot! But that also means I'm gonna be slightly busy for the next two weeks. I have my ceremony coming up, prom, rehersals, it's a whole bunch of crap I dislike but I'm gonna try my super best to get chapters out, just bear with me when they arrive late sometimes! _

_Like always, thanks a BUNCH of the reviews! :D _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!_

_Just take those spaces and replace an actual period and I believe that will work. _


	4. Chapter 4

_Handful_

_-chapter 4-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

"Now are you sure you're going to be okay?" The woman had asked rather nervously as she paced in front of the front door of their house, unknowingly gnawing on her fingernails as he eyes darted between the two faces she saw. "Because I can really just tell them to find a new doctor.."

"We're going to be fine." Sasuke had stated simply without a waver in his voice, watching her nervous habits with slight amusement. "You're the one we should be worried about, you haven't been on the field in a little over a year." Ever since Mako had been born she'd been tending to his every need without even thinking about the numerous other people that needed her assistance on the field but the messenger bird that perched itself outside their house shed some light on a large battle. Sasuke would never say it out loud in fear that she'd be upset, but he was slightly worried. She'd heal him when he returned from missions but the bigger things that needed healing..

"Yeah I know.." Murmuring inaudibly, she pulled her green flak jacket over her shoulders, adjusted it, then began to tie her red headband the usual way she wore it on missions. "I'm hoping I wont be too long.. And you remember everything I told you, right? The specific way he has to be put to sleep-"

"I remember."

She let out a sigh with a slight guilty smile on her face. "Okay. Don't burn the house down while I'm gone." She took a step forward and they shared a kiss before he watched her hesitantly leave the house.

Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment, silently breathing in through his nose before he left the foyer and walked into the living room where Mako already had a little blanket set up for him on the floor with numerous amounts of toys Sakura spoiled him with. He carefully laid the child down on his stomach and took a seat on the couch, watching and waiting for Mako to do something. Sakura had informed him that Mako should be starting to try and roll over and will even begin to amuse himself with his own toys without needing someone to introduce them to him. If Mako could play on his own then he couldn't see what could go wrong with Sakura being gone for a few days.

So that mean he had time to finish up a report that was due soon, waiting for him to pick it up off the couches side table. Just as he put the tip of his pen to the fine textured paper, he heard the beginning of a cry that consisted of slight whimpers. He peered over the top of the paper to see two big wobbly tears on the verge of pouring down Mako's face which was screwed up in a way he hadn't seen before.

"What's wrong with you." He questioned the kid, not expecting an answer but hoped that it may make him be quiet. He watched with eyes like a hawk as Mako's little lip quivered a tiny bit before the tears suddenly disappeared back into his large green eyes and he sullenly looked back to the toy in his hand. He sighed before reopening the scroll before his eyes and beginning to scrawl down words. He gripped the paper when he heard the soft cries of his son from behind the paper once again. He set his scroll down, leaned in so he rested his elbows on his knees and squinted at the boy. "Why."

Mako 'tried' to look as if he was restraining his cries but he actually was just putting on a show for attention. His lip quivered more than Sasuke had ever seen before his cheeks sported tiny tears spilling from his unhappy looking eyes.

Sasuke knew this child was only upset because he already missed his dearest mommy. He was a fussy baby indeed. So he picked Mako up from under his armpits and sat him beside himself, leaning against the back of the couch and prayed he could get some work done.

Mako was silent for a full eleven minutes before he started making a fuss and yanking on Sasuke's clothing.

Sasuke accepted defeat.

Later on in the day he looked at the clock on the wall and noticed it was time to feed Mako his formula. He did all of the steps he watched Sakura do. He made the formula in the little bottle, stuck it into the bottle warmer, and tested it on his wrist to make sure it wasn't too hot or too cold. It deemed it worthy enough to feed his son and he found himself on the couch with Mako and the bottle. He fed Mako a few times in the past but from his reactions he deduced he wasn't good at it so he hoped his son would drink the formula so he wouldn't starve.

"You're going to drink this." He informed Mako sternly as he introduced the bottle in front of him, to which Mako held out his hands and wrapped his tiny fingers around it's plastic surface. He smirked when Mako began to drink the formula without a problem. It was an amazing moment for this father to actually have his son not throw the bottle at his face in disgust.

When that was done Sasuke dreaded what came next: the struggle to get this little guy down for a nap. He made sure his crib had his favorite stuffed cat in it, the comfiest blankets in his arsenal, the mobile was spinning at the correct speed, and after all of this preparation he was still mildly nervous that Mako wasn't going to give in. Usually it was Sakura who had the talent for getting Mako to sleep, for he had no clue how to make little babies happy enough to fall asleep. Usually after eating Mako was tired so Sasuke prayed that was enough for him to sleep without a fight.

He gently laid Mako down into the crib, placed the cat into his arms, and pulled the fleece blanket up to his waist. "You have to nap now." He told him, lacking the stern voice, because he did not want to upset Mako enough that he stayed awake. Slowly he backed away from the crib once he spotted Mako's eyelids begin to twitch tiredly, so that was his warning to leave.

After Mako awoke after a nice long nap, after Sasuke changed his diaper, after another small bottle of formula, and after Sasuke trying to get Mako to bed, the evening came and Sasuke could call it a day.

But he knew that Mako's almost angelic behavior today could only mean the next few days were going to be absolute hell.

Like how right when the clock struck three, the devils hour, he heard Mako wail at the top of his lungs. Sasuke rubbed his face and pried himself away from the bed, dragged his feet into the nursery and stared down into crib with a scowl. Mako's tears stopped leaking from his eyes but he still clenched his tiny fists and twisted his face up, letting out an exasperated sigh.

Sasuke rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Your mother isn't here to make you go back to sleep, so if it's her that you want you're out of luck." Mako still looked at him angrily and he groaned. He wrapped his hand around the wooden bar of the crib and dragged it all the way from his nursery and all the way into his bedroom so he didn't have to walk continuously from one room to the next. "What do you want?"

He gently lifted Mako up and that's when his animosity completed disappeared. He looked as if he was extremely tired and he smirked when Mako's eyes slowly began to droop down. Carefully, he tried to lay him back down but once he left his fathers arms he noticed and began to wail once more.

"Why do you do this to me?" Once again he picked up the little handful and cradled him close.

He ended up having to fall asleep with Mako in his arms for the rest of the night. When he awoke he didn't realize he'd miss Sakura this much - especially when she was the one who knew how to properly take care of babies. As he reminisced in the fond memories of Sakura taking care of Mako, Mako awoke in his fathers arms, twisted his face, and began to wail.

He wondered what it was he did to make his son hate him so much.

Five days of pure hell later, Sasuke heard the front door swing open and he couldn't be more grateful to hear that sound again. When she appeared in the doorway with that beautiful face a genuine grin spread across his face.

"I'm so tired..." She lazily dragged her feet across the hardwood floor, rubbing her eyes with one hand while she slowly untied her headband and threw it on the couch. Just as slowly as crawled onto the couch and curled up on his lap. "More tired than taking care of Mako.. And I thought that was tiring." She wrapped her arms around her tiny baby and placed a kiss on his forehead, turning back to Sasuke, she gave him a kiss as well. "I missed you two so bad. How was Mako's behavior?"

"He was still the little monster he always is with me." He shrugged like it was no big deal but in reality the past six days of Sakura's absence, he had the hardest time in his adult life.

"Awww." She cooed gently with a small smile gracing her lips, giving Mako another kiss on his forehead. "He's just being a baby, they always act like that."

"Not him. He does it on purpose." She grimaced. "And because he missed you."

"Mhm, he's a little mamas boy, but he loves you too so don't get discouraged." Her voice was barely a whisper and a tired little smile fought to stay on her face, she snuggled right into Sasuke's chest. Just as she was on the brink of falling asleep in his arms, she felt a cold feelings against her skin. She wanted to fight the feeling but her curiosity got the better of her, so she cracked an eye open.

"I never knew how much I needed you until now." Of course she listened to his words but when her eye cracked open a sparkle had blinded her vision, confusing her greatly, but she squinted and got the first glimpse of it ever. She could feel the blood leaving her face in a rush and the tingles beginning to massage her face, her eyes widening and her breath hitching in her throat. She always wanted him to propose the 'Sasuke' way, and just putting a ring on her finger was just the way she knew it would happen. "It's probably not the way you want it-"

"Sasuke.."

"-but within these six days I did a lot of thinking and I knew I had to do this when you got back or I'd hate myself for keeping you waiting."

The biggest grin she could have ever mustered in this state of mind surfaced when she swapped her gaze from the beautiful stone on her finger to the man she loved. It was the most magical moment she'd ever experienced. It was a moment she'd actually been waiting for since she was just a young girl. She then laughed because the proposals usually worked was the man proposed and the woman had to give him an answer. The Sasuke way; however, was him sticking a beautiful ring onto her finger with an explanation. Along with that chuckle, she shook her head playfully. "I love you." She leaned in, carefully laying Mako against his fathers chest, so she could wrap her arms around his neck and plant a kiss on his lips. "I love you so much." She wouldn't have asked for a better proposal - she just couldn't see Sasuke getting down on one knee which he thankfully did not do or she'd burst out in giggles.

He smirked against her lips. "I'm glad."

"This was how I always imagined it. Not popping a question, just announcing it. It's so... You!" After she finished squishing his cheeks and looked back down at the sparkly stone residing on her ring finger. The ring itself was rose gold and the diamond was marquise cut. She wanted something that didn't scream attention yet something that spoke of her own personality and she found he got that quite well. "And this ring.. Sasuke, I love it so much. It really screams me!"

He just sat there in utter pride. He knew he wasn't going to do it the traditional way because even though he loved her with everything he had, he was not getting down on one knee for anyone. Too prideful. Yet he knew this wasn't the worst that was going to happen. If he could have the proposal his way that meant...

"Oh I can't wait to plan the wedding!"

It meant Sakura got to have the wedding her way. He knew this would only lead to embarrassment.

* * *

_Um no I'm not good at writing awkward things. For me Sasuke proposing is totally awkward because let's face it, the Sasuke we all know isn't the ooey gooey propose-y type, so I was seriously out of my element. I'm so sorry to the people that were expecting something extravagant but if I had to make it better it would take me months to get out of my embarrassment. JUST FORGET THAT LAST SCENE! _

_Thanks for all of the reviews so far! 28 with only three chapters?! Wowzers! Not to mention the large amount of followers and faves this story got!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	5. Chapter 5

_Handful_

_-chapter 5-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

With Mako being so young and needing constant attention, Sakura announced that they didn't need to wed immediately, much to Sasuke's pleasure. But the pushing back of a date didn't mean that Sakura wasn't planning something that would attract every single citizen. He'd hear tidbits of what Sakura spoke about with Ino and Hinata and from what he heard, he really didn't like it. When Hinata had visited, they were chattering about weddings and that's when Naruto and Sasuke locked eyes.

"I swear I will be married before you!" The blonde shoved an accusing finger into Sasuke's face as he twisted his face so it displayed determination only. "If it's the last thing I do!"

"We'll see about that." Sasuke casually stuck his hands into his pockets as he spoke. Whenever he seemed like he didn't care it really riled Naruto off. In reality, though, he was equally as determined to get married before that jackass - even if it was a second marriage. "Sakura seems adamant to get married whereas yours would be too shy to even leave her dressing room."

"You've already been married, let _me_ get married now! You can't steal this away from me!"

"So you want me to tell Sakura that you want her to wait?" He raised an eyebrow. Would Naruto dare do that?

He rubbed his chin and nodded to himself. "Yeah you're right. I wouldn't live long enough to get married.. Hmph!"

Although his childish rivalry made him want to hurry up and have his wedding already so beat Naruto to it, he was still petrified to do it. Naruto had told him not too long ago about how excited he was about the ceremony and to get his suit and blah blah blah - these were all the things Sasuke absolutely had no interest in doing. In the list of things he was not excited about, those were probably the last on the lit. The number one was he knew that Sakura was going to invite everybody in this village plus their extended families, and seeing as how he was no 'people person,' he didn't think this was going to end well, especially since most people in the village were just waiting to see him executed. Why would he want those people around him at his wedding? Hell, he didn't even want to attend Naruto's wedding because of course he was going to make it some big deal, and he as appointed Best Man, was going to have a lot of eyes on him. And a speech? No. He didn't want to do it in the least bit. He could possibly opt out from a fake medical condition but that idea was cancelled out when he remembered that Sakura was the best medical nin in the village.. Or he could sign up for an almost suicide mission a few days before the wedding so there was a chance he wouldn't make it back in time..

If he was stuck to being present for the wedding; however, he didn't have the foggiest idea as to what he was going to do. He didn't have any nice things at the top of his head to say about Naruto, though he knew many, he didn't want to admit it in front of a large crowd, hell, he hated saying nice things in front of just one person. Not only his Best Man speech.. He had vows to ready. Why was this so hard? He shook his head at the thought. He wished he could just sign a form like he had done with Karin. But Karin wasn't special, and Sakura was. So if she wanted a special wedding than he'd do just that.

...

Sasuke was amazed at which the rate little Makoto was growing. At seven months he was able to do a lot more things for himself than just a few months ago. Mako loved it when either he or Sakura helped him stand on his feet so he could bounce up and down, it made him feel like he was walking around just like his parents did. Not only that, but he could finally sit up by himself without his parents aid, so that was less attention Sasuke had to give him and that was always great. What wasn't great, Sasuke thought to himself as Mako's face grew red, was teething.

Teething was the worst thing he had ever experienced, at least he thought so. Mako was always somewhat fussy so when he had begun teething he was almost like the embodiment of the devil. He already had trouble sleeping through the night but with the pains of teeth beginning to bud, he'd wake up at unimaginable hours with the loudest wails that could wake the city. This was a good time for the Uchiha district to be abandoned or they'd all be at their front door with complaints. Not only that but Mako was constantly crying, smacking hands away, drooling all over the damn place, and refusing his newly introduced baby cereal. He was being a real pain in the ass.

So the rare moments when Mako was doing none of the above, Sasuke was content. Mako liked to test Sasuke authority, now that he was becoming self aware, so he liked to do the little things like not listening to his fathers stern voice when he did something he shouldn't have. Usually he burst out into tears when Sasuke raised his voice to get him to finally listen but he found amusement in making him frustrated. So when he stuffed a large portion of his stuffed cat into his mouth, more than he knew he should have, he looked up to his father who squinted at him angrily.

"Mako, don't put that in your mouth." He told him as he crossed his arms, a sign to Mako that this man meant business. But his gums were sore and he was in a daring mood, so he engulfed more of the cat into his mouth. "Mako." He warned again, taking a step forward toward the blanket on the floor of the living room. Since Sakura's attention was too focused on the book she was reading, curled up on the couch, he pledged he would do this himself.

Mako twisted his face up and placed the palms of his hands down upon the blanket and began to slowly crawl the opposite direction of Sasuke with the cat dangling from his mouth. With only two steps Sasuke was completely caught up. He sat cross legged on the blanket and picked Mako up off the floor, holding him in front of his face, keeping his face stern. "Get that cat out of your mouth."

Mako let out a long whine because he wanted to be put back on the floor so he could continue crawling but Sasuke showed no signs of giving up so he opened his mouth wide and the cat fell out onto the floor. As he placed Mako back down on the floor, he carefully picked up the cat by its not wet tail. "Now you can't play with him anymore." He stood up and dangled the cat in front of him as a sign of victory, and walked away to throw the cat in the wash.

"Aw, Sasuke look how sad he is." Sakura's eyes peered over the top of her thick anatomy textbook, pursing her lips as her motherly instincts were kicking in and she just wanted to cuddle the poor thing. "Mako sweetheart, it's okay!"

She folded the page she was currently on, set the book down beside her, then crawled onto the floor beside her upset son, pinching his cheek gently with a light laugh. "Baby boy, you need to learn you can't stuff things in your mouth like that!" She showered him with many kisses before she handed him another toy before planting herself back down on the couch and stuffing her nose into her textbook.

Sasuke sighed. Sakura was great at making Mako shut it. So he turned around to throw this stupid cat into the washer.

...

The next morning he awoke and it was an unusual day. Usually he woke up before Sakura but this morning she was already out of be with her alarm turned off, signaling she had used it to wake up before him. He never liked to make a big deal about this day but Sakura was on a completely different page than him. He pulled the duvet off his body and took a quick shower then changed into his clothes. Not really wanting to leave the bedroom, he did so anyways because he knew she was out there waiting for him. He padded down the hallway, down the stairs, turned right, and found himself standing in the kitchen where Sakura was smiling innocently like he had expected her to

"Happy birthday, Sasuke!" She clapped happily with a large smile, the smell of freshly prepared breakfast wafting through the kitchen. "You're a quarter of a century!" She bounced over and attached herself on his torso, planting kisses all over his face.

When she finally stopped with the barrage of kisses, he got the chance to speak. "It's not that big of a deal."

"I know you made me promise not to do anything, but I had to make you breakfast that wasn't rice and a tomato like you eat every morning before I wake up. Breakfast is hardly anything, I'm already feeling guilty." She whined playfully as she detached herself from him and flounced over to the counter where she had his breakfast plate already prepared. She set the plate down on the island in front of a bar stool, placed down a napkin, fork, and knife and stared lovingly at him.

If it wasn't his birthday he'd be a bit suspicious of her intentions, but he shook it off and took a seat at the island. As he took the fork in his hand, he glanced around. "Where's your plate? Did you already eat?"

She shook her head with a faint smile. "I didn't want any."

Now he eyed her suspiciously. "I can't just sit here and eat in front of you."

With a roll of her eyes, she leaned against the counter. "Just eat, I'm not hungry anyways."

As he was eating, he watched her carefully. She was acting normally but something wasn't sitting right with him. She forced him to eat when he had made her a birthday breakfast on her twenty-fifth.. She was rhythmically tapping her fingers against the wooden cabinets idly, her eyes wandering around, looking as if she had many things on her mind. When he had finished off everything on his plate, he placed his fork and knife down onto the porcelain and stared at her. "Why are you acting strange?"

"I'm not acting strange, Sasuke." She smiled and knelt down and when she came back up, she presented him with a gift, which was something he made her promise not to do. She looked mildly guilty but that was overrun by excitement. "I had to get you a present as well." She sat on the bar stool next to him and stared at him eagerly. "Open it!"

With a sigh, he took the box into his hands and studied it for a moment before pulling the small blue ribbon out of it's knot. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her grimace and lean in closer, as if she didn't know what she had wrapped up for him. He carefully undid the wrapping paper to ensure there was no mess left after this, and was left with brown box. He tried to think of what she had gotten him but he failed to think of anything that would fit into this box or would even need a box. Curiously, he took the lid off the box and without looking at the contents picked it up and held it before his eyes, Sakura completely out of sight.

It was a plain white baby onesie meant for newborns that read '_I love my daddy._' His brows furrowed and he held it down a tad to look at Sakura. "Mako wont fit this.. And he doesn't love me."

"Sasuke!" She smacked the counter playfully with a wide grin. "Come on.." She raised a brow and stared at him, still eagerly watching him like a hawk.

When he looked back at the onesie his mouth formed an 'o' shape as he finally realized what the meaning of this onesie was. He looked right back at her quickly. "You're...?"

"Yes!" She screeched happily and threw herself on him again, squeezing him tightly. "Can you believe it!? Gah! I'm so happy, aren't you?!"

"You're... Pregnant."

She sighed dreamily and planted a kiss on his lips. "Yes!" She puckered her lips and her excitement faded away. "Are you not happy?"

He slowly nodded, shock taking over his entire body. "Of course I am.." He blinked a few times. Was this really happening? "I just wasn't expecting it.."

She smiled and took his face between her palms. "I know it's a bit soon to have another baby but, you know, we aren't getting any younger, right? Plus I don't want Mako to be alone, he needs a sibling to play with! I grew up without a sibling so I know how lonely it gets." He nodded along to her words, still taking in the fact that once again she was going to be dragged down by the pains of pregnancy. Indeed he didn't want just one child but he never thought of what came after Mako. He suspected another baby would just appear in a crib somewhere in the house.

When Mako's gentle little cries sounded through the house Sakura dragged him upstairs to the nursery. She scooped Mako up into her arms and kissed his cheek. "You're going to have a baby brother or sister, Mako!" She cooed gently and continued to kiss him some more. "Oh, Sasuke, I know you probably want us married before this baby comes, so we can schedule the wedding for sooner~!"

He licked his dry lips as he watched Sakura cuddle their son happily. "...Before Naruto's wedding?"

She laughed heartily and rocked Mako around playfully. "Of course, Sasuke."

When he stared down at his little son in Sakura's arms, he was filled with love with just the mere thought of another baby in his life, but then he remembered what a little shit Mako was and he knew it was just going to get harder from here.

* * *

_Dun dun DUNNNN! She's pregnant again, and the natural way! Some may say this was too soon, and I completely agree. Originally I was going to have her get pregnant after their wedding but then I watched this video where this woman bought her husband a onesie that said the same thing and i knew it had to happen, plus the months almost added up from Mako's birthday to Sasuke's birthday, so yeah! Sorry if it's too soon, but it had to be done. _

_Thanks a ton for the constant lovely reviews/faves/follows! You guys are simply amazing!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	6. Chapter 6

_Handful_

_-chapter 6-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura had settled on a date that they were certain was soon enough that she wouldn't start showing. Since this would be her second pregnancy she was going to balloon out much quicker than with Mako, and she didn't really want to be wearing a beautiful wedding kimono with a noticeable baby bump. So in two months she and Sasuke would be officially married... With the date set, she had invited Naruto over to break the news. She nervously paced around the living room. She knew Naruto was going to absolutely flip out because his competitive side made him want to beat Sasuke at everything, and their weddings was one of them. She urged Sasuke to take a mission so when Naruto blew up there wouldn't be any fighting between the two.

When some knocks sounded at the door of the house, jitters ran down her spine. "Wish me luck baby, your uncle is going to flip out." She picked Mako up and snuggled him to her chest as she padded over to the door and pulled it open to reveal the blonde. "Hey Naruto."

"Hey Sakura! S'everything okay? You don't usually call me out of the blue." He walked in and hung his robe on the coat hanger before they walked into the den, where Sakura placed Mako onto his blanket. "So what's up?"

She contemplated what she should start with. The good news first or the bad news first... "I called you here because I have a few things to tell you. The first one you're not going to like at all.." She watched as his eyes grew wide with curiosity. "Due to unexpected circumstances, me and Sasuke had to change the date of our wedding.." Seeing as how Naruto and Hinata had already sent out the beautifully made invites, there was no way he could go back. "To August 23rd." She pursed her lips nervously. Naruto and Hinata had settled on September 17th, theirs almost a month ahead of theirs.

Naruto's face was stoic and unchanging, it was quite frightening for a man that had a plethora of facial expressions. Slowly, his blonde brows knitted together as he worked out what she had said in his mind. Being Hokage, Naruto was beginning to become used to having everything his way, and that was scary. "So.. You're saying... Sasuke's gonna get married before me... AGAIN?! AUGH!" He viciously scratched at his head angrily, wailing angrily to himself. "Not again! That freakin' bastard gets whatever he wants!"

"Naruto..." Sakura waved her hands around to try and calm him down but it was a fruitless attempt, Naruto's mood was completely flushed down the drain. "It's for a good reason, though!" He stared at her with an 'as if' face. "Well... I'm pregnant! Again! We have to have the wedding sooner rather than later because I'm going to get quite large this pregnancy and I didn't want people thinking he was only marrying solely for the fact that I was pregnant."

"JEEEEEZZZZ!" He whined again with a long, heartbroken sigh. "Gods, again!? How much sex are you even having?! Mako was born like.. Yesterday!"

Although her fist twitched angrily, she still found some peace within her self to continue talking. "Yeah but Mako wasn't conceived from sex, remember that, Naruto.." She growled as a warning and shook off the negativity. "Anyways, I'm really sorry about that Naruto. Trust me, I really did want you to get married before us, but like you told Sasuke that one time, he wouldn't want another child born out of wedlock. It's either now or never.."

"Aaauughhh... Fiine, I guess it's alriiight.." Naruto puckered out his lips like a sad five year old child and crossed his arms over his chest. "But I guess it's cool you're pregnant again... Who am I kidding, it's awesome! What do you want, Sakura!?"

Grimacing, Sakura absentmindedly placed the palm of her hand on her flat belly and looked up at the ceiling. "Maybe a girl so Sasuke can possibly get a daughter's attention." They both chuckled and Naruto rubbed his hands together sneakily.

"This is good, because if you have a girl, then whatever gender kid I have will have a match! Aw man you've got me all excited! I can't WAIT to have kids!" His eyes dreamily stared off into the distance. "If I have a daughter, I'm going to name her Himiko. Named after that old shaman Queen way back when. It means Princess, which is what she's going to be!"

"Aw, Naruto, that's a beautiful name and meaning!"

"Do you have some names picked out, since y'know, you didn't tell me Mako's name till he came out."

"I have some, yes. But I like to keep them as surprises. I'll tell you the meaning if you're not going to let up on me telling you. The name I have for a girl means morning beauty. There's a few names with that meaning. Then for a boy I'm not going to say because it would be too obvious."

"Interesttiiinnnggg... You going to learn the gender, like, both of you?"

She nodded. "I think so. It was nice for Sasuke to have Mako's gender as a surprise, but I think now he just wants to know when the time comes." As the two sat there, her mind thought of the different future scenarios that have yet to happen. She could imagine Naruto having a little... Naruto! A loud, obnoxious little thing with its mother's hair and its father's eyes.. And of course all of their children would immediately befriend each other, and be on the same team, and be each others allies.. But seeing as how she was already getting stupidly excited over this thought, she calmed herself down because that was way too far down the line to get worked over.

...

"This place!" Ino screeched as her grip on Sakura's hand tightened, beginning to drag the pinkette into a fancy and expensive looking bridal boutique. "I sense the perfect dress in here!" The three ladies stormed into the shop and were immediately greeted by a middle aged woman who prodded them to wear the stores plastic sandals to keep the place clean. They traded in their own sandals and were shown around, the store sorted by the different types of dresses and color palettes. Sakura was too embarrassed to admit she already memorized the floor plan way back when her and Ino would window shop.

"I'll leave you to it." The shopkeep smiled broadly with a slight bow as she shuffled away silently, leaving them room to rifle through the hanging dresses by themselves.

"Do you have any idea as to what you want, Sakura? I mean there's so many here you can choose from!" Haru gushed, but silently grit her teeth because she desperately wanted to buy all of these dresses.

"I know... I was thinking to just stick with the traditional kimono. I found out from an elderly woman that the Uchiha's have always stuck with tradition. I don't know if I want to break it, you know."

"Yeah, wouldn't want to tick off all those spirits, eh?" The blonde joked dryly, sorting through a random rack of dresses. When she noticed Sakura looked a little jeeved about the spirit comment, she prodded her side with her elbow. "Relax, I bet they would have loved you! It's better that he's marrying you, because he probably would have been wed off to his cousin or something."

"Ino!" She slapped her friends arm, hard enough to mean business but in no way to harm her friend. "The Uchiha clan was large enough to marry into another family that didn't have any blood relations.."

"I know, I know, I'm kidding!" Ino pat her friends shoulder as she hurriedly returned to the dresses, throwing random ones over her forearm as she did so. "Anyways, I heard from Hinata that Naruto was super angry that you and Sasuke changed the wedding date but he never told her why.. As your best friends she thought I'd have an explanation..." She looked over to Sakura and gave her a hurt look. "But I didn't have one! Why don't you tell me things anymore!?"

"I was going to tell you today, so don't whine about it." Sakura drew in a deep breath, her eyes scouting the area, making sure no one of importance was around to hear about this. It was to be a secret to the rest of the village to keep their reputation untarnished. When the area was clear, she leaned in to the two curious women with a sneaky little smile. "It can't be told to anyone else, got it? Not even Shikamaru!" Ino nodded furiously. "Well, I found out about three weeks ago that I'm pregnant again!"

Ino was the first to react. She threw her arms up into the air, sending dresses around in the still air, dramatically like in the movies, her face contorting from curious to theatrically and glamorously happy. As the many plastic wrapped dresses fell into heaps on the marble flooring beneath their feet, Ino jumped up into the air and slowly threw her arms around Sakura, embracing her in a tight, almost deathly hug. "Sakura! Oh my gosh! Ohmyasdfghjkl!" She began talking so quickly neither Sakura or Haru could understand, so they just let her drone on as she knelt down on the floor to get eye level with Sakura's abdomen. "HELLO THERE BABY!"

"I think she's gone nuts..." Haru tapped her fingers to her lips with an inquisitive look on her face, but once she locked eyes with Sakura it was like she entered a magical trance and threw herself onto Sakura as well. "Another baby!" She screeched with a giddy grin spreading across her face and she to knelt down along side the blonde and stared intently at her still flat stomach.

"You're both nuts." She deadpanned as she stood there as the two gawked at nothing. She swore she was going to have a long talk to Shikamaru because leaving Ino in such a state of wanting with not healthy for anybody. "It's not going to show for another two months, so get over it." She smiled and stepped away, watching as their eyes went back to their normal size as they stood up and guiltily scratched their heads.

"Yeah but... Babies are magical, and I want one... So bad.."

"Ino, babies are a lot of work. You barely like to stay in the house and that's pretty much what you have to do for the first long while."

"They're so cute.."

Sakura blinked, stepping over the dresses to a rack she hadn't touched yet. She let her hand hover a moment before pacing to an opposite hangar section. "I'm going to go with traditional."

"With what accent color?!" Immediately snapping out of her trance, Ino was at her side in a second. "Pink, right? To accent your hair?"

"Yeah, most likely." She idly flipped through the dresses until she let out a dramatic sigh. "I'm worried about my dad guys, I'm scared he's not going to give me away." She could not imagine her father wanting to even be in the same place as Sasuke for that amount of time. He'd bear his presence when Sakura dropped Mako off with her mother to go out for a little while... But a wedding that would make them an actual family? Kizashi watching as his daughter married the '_traitor_' he still called him? Nuh uh.

"Pfft, your mom will make him walk you down that aisle, there is nothing to worry about. Your mama's fierce."

"He's just so stubborn!"

"Ah, so that's where you get it from?"

"Ugh, I guess - Ah!" She grabbed the metal coat hangar and ripped it from it's pole, holding it in front of her face to view its utter perfection. "This. Is. It!"

The two girls shoved her into a changing room and patiently waited outside on the pristine white couches for her to strut her stuff.

Inside the change room; however, was not happiness. When she fully undressed and caught a glimpse of her body, she grit her teeth together angrily. They weren't as prominent as they once were, but they were stretch marks nonetheless, and she hated them with her entire being. She tried every single stretch mark cream on the market and even had some old woman make a concoction for her but yet they remained, taunting her. They were disgusting and she felt like a zebra. When she told Sasuke of these feelings he reprimanded her and told her she _**did not**_ look like a zebra. It was even worse when she refused to show the tiniest bit of skin around him, even if it was nowhere near her stretch marks, she rejected it all. He had enough after she brought up the fact that a lot of the girls that tripped over their own feet for just a mere glance from him wouldn't have marks like she did.

She still hated to see it in the mirror but after he got angry with her she learned to zip her mouth. "One second!" She called out to Ino who was becoming impatient, throwing herself into her traditional kimono before looking back in the mirror with a smirk. "Now that's better!" Giving herself a once over in the mirror again, she stepped out to show her friends. Needless to say, they engulfed her in more excited hugs.

...

Later that day, she found herself with Mako in her arms in front of her parents house. Naruto had dragged Sasuke off to scream at him for changing the wedding dates but she presumed Sasuke would rather deal with Naruto than her parents, so she shrugged it off and knocked on the door. She made sure her ring finger was well hidden by Mako's little blanket.

When the door opened, her mothers cheerful face appeared. "Sakura! Mako!" She cooed loudly and stole him right out from her arms and slithered into the house, kissing Mako an absurd amount of times. "Nice to see you in almost... In almost a month! That's horrifying, Sakura! We're your parents!"

"It's better she came without the Uchiha!" Her dad called out from the kitchen only a single blue eye was what she saw, then a smirk when he noticed Sasuke was absent. It was better this way - all they would do was angrily stare at each other. The look in Sasuke's eyes looked as if he was saying '_sorry for plowing your daughter...not_.' She was sorry to say it was better without him by her side.

"Dad..." She began as she leaned against the counter in the kitchen, shooting him a warning glance. "I just came here to chat."

"Hello there, Grandson!" Kizashi's voice turned to a mushy mess when he greeted his grandson, waving a few fingers at the little man who in turn raised a brow at the man then flailed his arm around.

As her parents cooed over her son, Sakura decided not to wait any longer and held her left hand up for them to see her beautiful ring. When they still didn't notice, she cleared her throat impatiently. "Mom? Dad...?"

Her mother looked up to glance at Sakura for a moment, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. "What is it Sakura, I'm trying to spend time with my grandson that I barely get to see."

"Ugh! Look at my _ring_ finger. **_Ring finger_**!"

Both of them casually looked up to squint at her finger, her father stubbornly looking back down to Mako. "Oh, we know sweetheart."

"What!? Who the hell told you!? Friggan' Naruto can't keep his mouth shut!"

"What?" Her mother looked sincerely surprised. "No, it wasn't Naruto. You really think a man coming from a severely traditionalist family is going to put a ring on your finger without getting permission from her parents first?"

Her jaw fell wide open. "... Are you _kidding_ me? Sasuke came here... To.. Ask for permission...?" Her mother nodded like it was nothing.

"Your mother wouldn't let me say no, which I really wanted to say." Her father added as he held Mako's tiny little hands in his own.

"You seem surprised, Sakura."

"Well it's just... He never asks for permission, he just does it! He didn't even ask me to marry him, he just put the ring on my finger!" Everything she knew about him was wrong, leaving her amazed. Sasuke seemed like too big of an ego man to suck it up and confront her father. "H-how did it all go down?! Was there fighting?"

"Not much fighting... Just a lot of death stares between the two." Her mothers eyes looked off into the distance as she recalled the memory. "Come to think of it, he didn't actually ask for permission... He announced it..." She felt a little better knowing there was still some Sasuke in there. "But nonetheless, he still came to us about it and of course we gave him permission."

"Alright, well, this is great! I was so worried you weren't going to walk me down the aisle!"

"Doesn't mean he isn't going to try and embarrass Sasuke your entire wedding day, so don't feel relieved yet."

Sakura pursed her lips together as she stared at her father, who had a devilish look in his eyes.

Waving that off to the side, she went onto the next topic. "Well aside from the news you already know, I have some more!" Her parents returned to Mako who was cooing cutely at them for the attention he loved. No worries - she knew this was an attention grabber. "I'm going to have another baby!"

"What!? Oh by the Gods, congratulations sweetheart!" Her mother smiled greatly while she snuggled Mako harder, looking proudly upon her daughter while her father fumed.

"I didn't raise a danged broodmare for that traitor!" He genuinely looked heartbroken yet angry all at the same time and it confused her greatly. With a whimper, he crossed his arms, stepping down once Mebuki shot him a glance. "I like grandchildren, don't get me wrong, but this is so soon! I can't handle this!"

"Being a single child is hard..." This time she shot him a glance. Her parents only wanted one child, what with their busy lives and all. "I want Mako to grow up with a sibling."

"Would you really trust Uchiha siblings...? Really...? After that massac-"

"DAD!"

...

When she returned home from that oh so lovely visit with her parents, she spotted Sasuke sipping at some hot tea in the kitchen, studying over a report he was given. "Sasuke!" She quickly paced into the kitchen with a dumbfounded look on her face. "Why didn't you tell me you asked my parents for permission?"

He looked up over his report and over to her. "I didn't think it was important." He took a small sip at his tea.

"Well I guess it's not that important, but it just seemed like something that.. It just doesn't seem like something you'd do."

"My mother taught Itachi and I to ask for permission when proposing." He glanced back at his paper, taking another sip. "How was dress shopping?" Sometimes he seemed so uninterested she just didn't want to answer him but she was craving his attention so she stuck around.

"Actually, for your information, it was good. I found myself the perfect dress." She wondered if he would be angry if she told him she went with the traditional way and got herself a wedding kimono, saying that if she didn't want to do that then she shouldn't have. She decided against telling him that. "Do you think your parents would have liked me?" Ever since Ino brought up the spirits topic earlier she couldn't help to be nervous.

Usually talking about his family was a subject she never touched upon, but seeing as how he was going to marry him she thought maybe she should know a little about his parents other than their names and what they looked like. He didn't look like he minded being asked that question, though, as he took a moment to think about it before answering. "My mother would have loved you."

She smiled at the thought. He told her some things about his mother, but never went into explicit detail. She thought perhaps that caused him too much heartache. "I'm taking the lack of mentioning your father means he wouldn't have liked me?"

"He didn't believe in marrying outside of the clan."

"I'm surprised you didn't bring up the whole pink hair thing."

He gave her a half shrug. "That too." Another sip. "If the massacre hadn't happened I have a feeling I could be disowned."

"Oh jeez, it's that bad?" She always imagined just how bad it was being in a strict traditional clan that followed clear rules and followed them to a T, but being disowned for marrying outside of the clan? It sounded a tad harsh.

"He was the head of the Clan, so he would want to set a good example for the rest of the Clansmen."

"Hm." She glanced down to Mako who was tugging at her hair to bide his time, his eyes slowly beginning to droop. "Do you think your mom would have loved Mako?"

She could see that slight twitch upwards on his lips due to fondness and it caused her to smile. "She would have wanted to move in to help us take care of him." She could tell that he wasn't even exaggerating either. It made her remember when Sasuke told her that he used to think she was the best medic nin in the world when she applied a bandage to his face when he was younger - they just seemed so cute and happy.

Sakura was relieved knowing that although they may not be here in the physical world, Mikoto, Fugaku, and Itachi would always still be around watching over him growing up, not to mention Sasuke's ridiculously detail lacking stories to inform Mako of the people that still loved him.

* * *

_Wow that was a long chapter for no good reason. Well, it was good, but, usually my long chapters are for big events such as weddings, endings to stories, when I take a break, etc. This had no reason to be this long. Haha. I went high-heel shopping with my mom today to buy my graduation heels and it inspired me to write out the wedding scene because I felt all special and pampered and Queen like, so I thought, hey, Sakura needs a dress! Hope you all are happy! _

_Thanks for the reviews, yet again and without surprise, they all still amaze me! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	7. Chapter 7

_Handful_

_-chapter 7-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

"Aw Sakura, you already look so pretty!"

"I don't know why we had to hire a professional to do this, though. You're great at doing makeup!" Currently Sakura had been forced to sit upon a high chair while a posh woman with a large kit of expensive makeup scurried in, beginning to slap makeup onto her face.

"Because it's your wedding, you need to be pampered by someone who gets paid to do it." Ino announced as she sat upon a large lavish white chair, pulling open a magazine to gaze at it. Her and Haru were dressed in long, beautiful sea foam green kimono's that hugged their figures greatly. Once Sakura spotted them in the bridal store she knew they had to be theirs. She had a total of four bridesmaids, two of which were helping the others with preparations outside, those two being Hinata and Tenten. Without the four of them she swore this wedding would be a disaster.

"It is nice." She idly commented as she could feel the different tips of the cosmetic tools touching her face and applying all sorts of different things from liquids, so sponges, to pens, to a brush. She normally never wore makeup and she never felt the need to - but she felt quite nice being pampered like this.

"Do you have any idea as to what the guys are doing?"

She refrained from shaking her head. "No idea."

...

"Oi, who the hell knows how to tie this stupid Obi?" Naruto raged furiously as he stared at himself angrily in the large mirror, viciously untying the wrongly tied belt from around his waist before slapping it down to the ground. "I can't do it! I've tried a million times!" He looked over his shoulder to the two men that didn't bother to give him a glance. "Please!"

With the start time readily approaching, the men had just begun to get ready. Sasuke had not wanted any groomsmen but Naruto just assumed the position of Best Man - Sasuke let him take that role because it was the least he could do for being named the Best Man at Naruto's own wedding. Now Sasuke just wasn't sure why Naruto had forced him to have Shikamaru as a groomsmen, he knew most likely because Ino was on Sakura's little female team, but he had barely spoke a word to the man since his arrival back in Konoha, which was a staggering six years. He didn't argue because he knew he wasn't going to get any say in what his wedding turned out to be.

"Naruto, didn't you tie your Obi during your ceremony?" Shikamaru didn't sound like he cared at all but to ease the slight tension building in the room, he'd reply.

"..Eheh, no, I had Hinata do it for me." He grimaced sheepishly but as it faded it turned back into his pleading face. "But seriously, help a Hokage out here."

...

"I trust they're fine." Haru said from across the room as she ran her fingers through the soft curls in her hair feeling quite pleased with herself. "I mean all they really have to do is show up and get dressed, none of this makeup and hair stuff!"

"I can go check on them if you want." Tenten suggested with a raised brow, looking at the rest of the girls' confirmation. When Sakura nodded, Tenten gave them all a nod. "Alright, I'll be back in a sec." She twirled around and pushed open the silver swing doors and began to stride down the hallway. When she reached the mens door, she politely knocked on the door a few times before opening it up to get a glimpse of what they were doing.

She first saw Shikamaru who was watching Naruto with boredom filling his eyes, yet he seemed quite entertained by the two others in the room. When she took a step in, she saw that Sasuke was not even fully in his wedding gear, and Naruto's clothing was lopsided. She wasn't worried about Naruto, though. "Sasuke!" All three eyes immediately turned towards her, visibly fuming. "Why aren't you fully dressed!? You've only got your hakama and nagajuban! If Sakura knew she'd be so angry!"

"Then don't tell her." He said plainly, looking down upon her. Not that he meant to, at least. "As for what I'm wearing, I have time." All pairs of eyes went to the silver clock above the doorway and he only then realized that no he did not have a lot of time left to lounge around.

"Yeah, well, turns out you don't. Shikamaru, you're the responsible one out of the three of you, make sure they're ready!" And with that, she hurried out of the room and back to the girl to report what she'd witnessed. "Everything was fine!"

"Oh thank the Gods." The other three women let out sighs of relief and went back to the finishing details.

It was safe to say after that wake up call all three men were rushing to get ready. "Oh shiiiiit!" Naruto bounded across the room grabbing pieces of his suit, still trying to get his Obi tied up since Sasuke and Shikamaru found amusement in his begging and embarrassment. "Sasuke, hurrrryyyyy!"

Shikamaru stood idly watching Naruto with a raised brow, waiting to see how long he'd last going in over drive the way he was.

Sasuke was tying his own obi over his montsuki, thinking to himself how in the hell he got stuck in a small room with one of the loudest people he knew. As he pulled his haori on and began to tie his himo, Shikamaru groaned to himself and paced over to Naruto, showing him exactly how to tie an obi. He finally slipped into his white square toed zori sandals and made sure he had his Uchiha crest printed fan on his person.

"Hey, we've only got ten minutes left... But I feel good." Naruto sighed happily as he looked at himself in the mirror, grimacing at the perfectly tied obi around his waste, then gave himself a thumbs-up. "Yeah!"

Shikamaru paced outside to the balcony and lit himself a stress relieving cigarette, looking off into the clouds with a stoic expression on his face, letting his cigarette hang from between his lips as he went off into thought for the rest of the time.

...

"Oh, Gods!" Kizashi exclaimed once he saw his one and only little girl take a step out of her room with her hair, makeup, wedding kimono, and jewelry all done up. He fought back the few tears that stung his eyes but he was not strong enough against the image of Sakura minutes away from being married off. "..I can't believe this is happening right now...!"

She smiled sweetly and looked down at her kimono, smoothing out the small creases nervously. "Yeah, I know, me neither." She sucked in a long take of air and tried to tell herself to calm down but she was feeling something churning in the pit of her stomach - she couldn't tell whether it was from morning sickness or just pure nervousness. "Do you like my kimono? I mean you must, you have tears in your eyes!"

He pursed his lips together before puckering them out like a fish while his brow twitched, shaking his head profusely. "I-it's the pollen in the air from the flowers everywhere-"

"Yeah right!" She playfully punched his upper arm with a hearty laugh. "You're horrible at lying!"

They heard a 'psst' and they both snapped their heads to the side to see a man in a black formal suit, tapping the watch on his wrist to signal it was time to walk down that aisle. She could feel her kneels buckle down when they opened up the door to the outside where she had planned for their wedding to be, the bright rays of the sun shining onto their faces like it was Heaven's own light. She clutched her fathers arm tightly as her face blanched. "Everyone's going to be looking at me.."

"That's the point isn't it?" Kizashi began nervously as they took their first few steps forward into the blinding light - then all was revealed. Everybody had turned around, many sets of eyes on the bride and her father, all with big smiles and tears brimming at their eyes. She didn't realize why she was so nervous - these were all people she loved and she was certain loved her back. People that had supported her through the years, wiped away her own tears, supported and protected her on the battle field.. These were all people that she had invited because she knew she'd be comfortable in their presence, so as she met eyes with most of the people seated down and watching her, her fear washed away. Especially when she had locked eyes with Rock Lee and he was ferociously patting away the sparkles of tears in his eyes while giving her his best smile - she couldn't help but laugh at that. Or when her mother caught her glance and held Mako up carefully, who stared at her curiously. When she saw her oldest best friend Ino who was bawling her eyes out, needing Haru's assistance to pass her a handkerchief to wipe away the tears. Naruto, who stared at her like how her father stared at her. He looked immensely proud of her although she knew he had these long blueprints about how he had planned out her future. Despite all of that, he stood up their with a pleasant smile and his fingers laced together.

Although these people made her wedding day, there was one person that would tie it all together. A wedding wouldn't be complete without the groom, of course, who stood at the end of the aisle, waiting for her to be at his side. She wanted to look away desperately because she could already feel her cheeks becoming inflamed but she had already looked at everybody as she walked, so he was the last to look at. Sasuke on a daily basis would always look superb in her eyes, not because he was the only man she'd ever been attracted to her in her life, but because he was dressed in formal attire, he looked astonishing. In her youth she admit to always imagining this day and he'd be wearing a striking, well-fitted black suit but she only realized now how wrong she was. His traditional grooms attire was what really brought his look together. He was prideful in his prestigious upbringing and was raised to abide by traditions, and it showed, he look quite comfortable and relaxed in his garments, not to mention the hint of smugness in his face. She couldn't have been happier.

...

About ten minutes before the ceremony, a man in a black suit had came and grabbed Shikamaru, Naruto, and Sasuke out of their room and threw them outside to prepare for Sakura's entrance. Grumbling, Sasuke adjusted his clothing before turning and realizing he was standing in front of lots of people thanks to his truly. Their backs were facing him, but he knew his place was up in the front beside the priest. He sighed to himself before beginning to make his way down with the two men in tow, Naruto idiotically drawing attention to the three men by waving and hollering at everybody he knew - which, not surprisingly, was everyone seated.

"Shut it, Naruto." He threatened in a low voice, looking over his shoulder with a scowl and mean look in his eyes which he knew wouldn't work but damn - he didn't want these people staring at him! When he stopped beside the priest, he stole a glance at the crowd and he realized it was mostly people he had immense dislike for. Before this moment he'd imagined this moment with immense detail. He walk up there and the crowds faces would wash over with hatred, and he had even expected names to be called and insults toward his clan, but as he stood before them, they continued to chatter among themselves, not giving him a second glance. You could say it left him slightly pleasantly surprised. The only thing that bugged him was that stupid mutt that belonged to the Inuzaka guy taking up a whole seat. If he heard one word from that guy he swear he'd have them thrown out of his wedding...

Suddenly, the main doors were gently opened, revealing darkness. He knew who would be coming out of there and he suddenly grew nervous about everything. Not anything concerning doubts, but he wondered if he was dressed the way she would have wanted it. Or if the placement of the wedding was to her absolute satisfaction...

When she and her father stopped through the darkness and sunlight washed over their faces every single thought that raced through his mind was blown away. He had always thought it was stupid when people would say they were 'left speechless' but when he took in every little breathtaking detail from her feet all the way up, he had nothing to say, not because he was lacking any opinions, but because he was left in such a state that he couldn't elaborate his thoughts the way he would have wanted to. It was as if his vocal cords were cut, his tongue was ripped out and his mouth was sewn shut. She was already so beautiful in his mind but today... Wearing her wedding kimono, she was glowing with pride and tranquility, beauty radiating off her body. He couldn't say he'd ever seen her in such a way and he felt blessed to be the one to share this moment with her. All those years ago he couldn't care less about her life and her happiness yet here they were, on one of the most happiest days of their lives and who would have thunk, it was something they shared together.

When Sakura and her father reached the end of the aisle, he watched as Kizashi kissed the top of her head while his eyes watched Sasuke like a hawk, giving him the ultimate death stare that screamed 'if you ever hurt my daughter again, I will kill you.' Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at that.

When she took her rightful place before him he could really get a good look at her. He never fancied makeup on a woman and he was glad Sakura was never the kind to cake her face in it, but today, it was done in such a way that accented her features and made them stand out among the little things on her dress and in her hair.

When the time came for vows, the priest asked Sakura to begin. He watched lovingly as she nervously licked her lips and with slight twitch of her lips into a smile. She let out a shaky breath before starting. "I promise to be your lover, companion and friend, your partner in parenthood, your ally in conflict, your greatest fan and your _toughest_ adversary. Your comrade in adventure, your student and your teacher, your consolation in disappointment. This is my sacred vow to you, _my equal_ in all things."

He genuinely smiled. She had done a wonderful job at capturing the essence of their relationship into her vows and he only hoped that she would see it in his own. The only thing he was used to writing were formal reports after his missions, so he had put in a hefty amount of time into getting his vows just the right way. "You know me better than anyone else in this world and somehow you still manage to love me. You have believed in me when no one else would, and you have shown me how to love with passion, purity, and unconditional acceptance. I've broken many promises to you in the past, so all I can say now is I will do my very best to keep you happy and to make sure you never feel unloved or unwanted, and to make sure nobody else in this world makes you feel that way. This is my vow to you."

He only half expected her to burst out into tears with a beautiful smile on her face, apologizing profusely for making a scene, and so, as the priest blathered on, the couple silently stared at each other in complete bliss and harmony.

After the whole speech was given, the priest said the iconic words "_you may now kiss the bride._" It wasn't just an ordinary kiss like when he had to leave on a mission for a few days, it was a kiss that sealed their marriage, their sacred vows, the final step to becoming man and wife. It was their first kiss as a married couple, their first kiss as Sasuke and Sakura _Uchiha_. As they pulled away from each other, he noticed she was thinking the same thing as him as more relentless tears streamed down her face. Sakura was enveloped by a horde of women and he himself felt a hand on his shoulder and as he turned he saw Naruto with a weird accepting look on his face.

"I hope you meant what you said." He stated sternly with that Hokage-ish voice, giving Sasuke a serious sideways glance as he turned to look at the crowd of people.

"If I didn't mean it I wouldn't have said it."

Naruto shrugged. "I want what's best for her. Eheh, you did a good job with your vows though, I was half expecting it to be depressing..!' He cackled to himself before prancing off to talk to people int he crowd.

He was greeted next by Mebuki who was holding a content yet bored Mako in her arms, immediately wrapping him into her motherly arms. "Oooohhhh, my son-in-law! Look at you, so handsome in your robes, and Sakura...! She looked absolutely stunning, oh my darling daughter. You're going to treat her right, young man!" He nodded to her words and willingly took Mako into his arms. "Doesn't he look adorable in his little outfit?"

He didn't think his son looked adorable, handsome was a more suitable word for a boy.

Later on, Naruto had secretly asked Sakura if she was going to shove a piece of cake into Sasuke's face and when she shook her head, he asked for permission. She sighed with a guilty smile and allowed him permission to do this, knowing fully well it was going to result in some banter between the two, but she supposed if she wasn't going to do it someone had to.

So when the cake was serving, Naruto sneakily held a paper plate in one hand, then reached it in front of Sasuke's face and smeared it allover, laughing like a maniac in the process. "Sucka!" As Sasuke groaned dangerously and began to wipe the cake off his face, Naruto darted away from the table as fast as lightning away from the volatile man.

Sakura laughed heartily and helped him wipe away the desert with her napkin. "I'm surprised you didn't do anything about it, Sasuke."

He gave her a slight shrug. "He's got a wedding coming up. We'll see then what's so funny." He smirked at the thought of punching Naruto's face into the entire cake at his own wedding. That would be eventful.

Their wedding had turned out to be more entertaining than Sasuke originally thought, but he knew their honeymoon would be much more entertaining.

* * *

_Wow they're a married couple now! Yay! Sorry to people that thought maybe I approached this whole thing wrong but intimate, romantic things are really hard for me to write. But I hope that you guys will be at least slightly happy with it. The vows... I found Sakura's online because I'm not that creative, I altered it a tad, but Sasuke's I found the opening line and made the rest up based on my view on his character. Sorry if he's OOC! Tell me if he is and I'll try harder to get his personality better!_

_asdfghjkl I'm crossing the stage on Monday I'm so scared! Also, I'm six feet tall in my high heels! I'll be the tallest girl out of 200 people! jfjghdkg I'm an adult starting monday! Hehe!_

_Thanks a ton for the reviews and the follows and the faves! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	8. Chapter 8

_Handful_

_-chapter 8-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

_A/N: To those who asked me to write the honeymoon, I'm really sorry, I'd rather leave that to you guys' imagination, as well as I can't write romantic/lemony stuff anyways so I would have made it disappointing. If you'd like to write the lemon then that would be great haha. With lemon I'm more of a reader than a writer. Sorry in advance! _

* * *

Just two weeks after their wedding, both Sakura and Sasuke awoke to a special day. September ninth, the day Sakura had been waiting for for a long while now. She was the first to wake up, waking up with an overwhelming sense of love and pride. She smiled giddily and sat up so she was on her knees, then reached over and wrapped her hands around Sasuke's bicep, who was still fast asleep. She viciously shook his arm until he sat up stark straight with his eyes flashing red, looking already until he spotted her guilty looking face, his eyes returning to their dark state.

"Sorry.." She giggled sheepishly as she threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up enthusiastically. "..But you've gotta wake up!"

Sasuke groaned and rubbed his face with his hands, already seeming to be in a bad mood. "He wont even remember it-"

"But Sasuke, we remember it! One day he is going to ask about his first birthday and we need stories to tell him! I'll feel bad if we don't celebrate his first year on this earth!" She whined playfully as she grabbed some fresh clothes and padded over to the door that opened wide to their en suite bathroom. "I'm just going to take a quick shower, I'll be out in a sec." With that, she disappeared behind the wooden door, leaving him to his own devices.

He toyed the idea of getting just a few more minutes to lounge around in bed since his alarm would go off in fifteen minutes, but decided against it, so he stood up tall beside the bed and stretched his limbs out. He always needed something to wake him up fully in the mornings, so he decided to go and prepare himself some tea. As he left their bedroom, he peered into Mako's nursery to find him already standing in his crib, holding onto the railing with his tiny little hands, staring at him with a blank stare he'd never seen before. They stared intently at each other until Sasuke's brows furrowed a tad, taking a step down the hallway, leaving his son in the room. He knew that pacifier in his mouth would prevent him from crying and he couldn't handle Mako without a morning tea.

He'd only taken a small sip of his freshly prepared tea when Sakura appeared with a blotchy faced Mako in her arms with a blue pacifier stuck in his mouth. "Sasuke, didn't you hear him crying?"

"You can't tend to him every time you hear something come out of his mouth or he'll end up being spoiled and needy."

"But Sasuke, it's his birthday!" She smiled sweetly down to the boy and planted a big kiss on the top of his hair covered head. "He should be dotted upon every second! Plus, it's proven that Uchiha babies are fussy. It's in his blood. There'll be no helping the needy-ness and spoiled-ness."

"I don't want to raise him like that-"

As the last of his words escaped his mouth, a woman with blonde hair whizzed into their house, immediately enveloping Mako into her arms. It was of course Mebuki, who had been gushing about her grandchild's first birthday for ages it seemed like. He didn't want to be caught in this soon to be estrogen filled room once the baby shower topic was brought up, so he held his mug of warm tea in his hand and managed to sneak out before they noticed. He had already been forced to sit through Ino's loud mouth when she had visited and that was something he pledged never to do to himself again.

So he silently made his way up the stairs so he could go take a shower.

Later on in the day, Sakura sat Mako down into his high chair and presented him with a cupcake, beaming brightly as his eyes widened with fascination. "It's for you Mako!" She cheered with a clap of her hands, absolutely glowing with pride in her little boy.

"You expect him to eat that whole thing?" Sasuke finally piped up, taking a step forward to scan the cupcake. He was never one for sweets, he knew Sakura enjoyed them once in a while, but he was going to make it a firm rule that there would be no unhealthy foods in the house. Starting at a young age was not a good thing, at least he thought, when he could already see his sons mouth watering for the sugar filled fatty food. Refusing Sakura of what she wanted was not something he intended to do today; however, that wouldn't stop him from giving his opinion on the matter.

"Well, no.."

"He has two teeth."

"Sasuke, you don't necessarily need teeth to eat cake. It melts in your mouth!"

He'd already expressed to her that he didn't want Mako to end up like Choji in their youth but he trusted her enough that this would be the only unhealthy thing Mako ever ate. Boy, was he wrong.

...

"I can't believe how amazing this pregnancy is turning out!" Sakura announced as she spread herself out on the couch lavishly, stretching happily as she did so. "No morning sickness, no disgusting cravings, my legs and back aren't sore... So much better than with Mako!"

"Well you know what they say, Sakura, the better the pregnancy the worse the labor! I mean wasn't Mako's birth relatively short?" Her mother questioned as she took a delicate sip of her tea from her comforting warm mug. As winter approached the weather in Konoha began to drop to chilly goosebumps raising temperatures, so Sakura and her mother lit a fire in the living area and deemed it a day to lounge around.

"Yeah, it was pretty easy." Sakura took a long soothing sip of her tea, thinking for a moment. "I think this baby is going to be a real toughie."

From the hallway, Sakura could hear Sasuke groan in frustration from the revelation and she couldn't help but laugh.

...

The next day to Sasuke's surprise, Sakura appeared at the training field, motioning for him to meet up with her. When he dropped what he was doing, he looked at her with a questionable face. "Where's Mako? And why are you here?"

She waved it off like it was nothing. "He's with my mom, don't worry. I would have thought you remembered or your curiosity would have gotten the better of you.. But it's almost a month passed sixteen weeks, where we can learn the gender..? You left so early this morning I didn't have time to tell you!"

Being so incredulously busy with the little handful Mako it hadn't even entered his mind that she was nearing the date where they could learn the gender. They'd decided a while back that they had enough of the surprises and just wanted to know what this baby was, and upon remembering this, he felt a tad bit excited. How could he forget?!

"So...? I made an appointment for today, that is if you haven't changed your mind about learning the gender." He shook his head. "Great!"

She basically dragged him through the city, saying hi to everybody on her way, and just narrowing hiding Sasuke from a still enraged Naruto. At his and Hinata's wedding Sasuke returning the favor and smacked Naruto upside the head so hard his face slammed into his plate of ooey gooey cake. They haven't seen each other since.

When they entered the office of Sakura's favored ob/gyn, they went straight to business. Sakura carefully laid herself upon the cold chair beside the monitor, Sasuke took his seat at her right side, and the doctor began pressing random buttons. "This will be cold." He told her once she rolled her shirt up to reveal her swell, nodding in response. He placed a wad of jelly onto her belly and began to rub the transducer around in gentle circles, creating a blurred image on the screen. "So, what are you both wanting?"

"Hmm." Sakura tapped her shell pink lips with her index finger as she thought about that question for a moment. "I'd be fine with either, but if I absolutely had to pick I think I'd want a little girl, just to even it out." She rolled her head on the pillow over to look at Sasuke. "I'm guessing you want another son to train?" She and the ob/gyn had a light chuckle as Sasuke shrugged it off, averting his eyes from her radiant face over to the cleared up monitor which clearly displayed a tiny baby face.

The doctor flicked a switch and the relieving sound of a healthy heartbeat sounded throughout the room, followed by Sakura's sigh of relief. "Oh look at their little face! How cute!" Sakura cooed gently as she pointed to the monitor, her heart melting as she took in the image of her little ones tiny nose and lips. "And their fingers...! Look how tiny they are!"

At first Sasuke didn't find it that amazing, since it was something he had basically already seen. It was almost the same image as with Mako, a tiny sleeping little baby with it's fingers near it's face. He'd seen it before.

"Alright, gender time." The doctor announced with a smile as he carefully slid the transducer around to position it at an angle that would reveal it's private parts. "Alright, so here..." He pointed at the screen. "We can't see any 'bits' so, it's safe to say that this is a little girl!"

Knowing that this wasn't the exact same thing as with Mako, Sasuke slightly lightened up. This wasn't just another son to help the Uchiha name continue on, this was a little girl. He knew how to handle Mako pretty well, but would a little girl be a different story? Would she too not like him?

"Yes!" Sakura screeched loudly with a sparkling grin, her eyes big and wavering with surfacing tears. As they showed themselves, she waved her hands around her face frantically to help dry them out but she was never good at concealing her emotions. She finally let them pour down her face as if it were the ocean cascading from her eyes. "A girl!"

"Yes, a girl.. And by the looks of it, she seems to be developing at a healthy rate!"

Frantically trying to wipe away her tears, she looked back to witness Sasuke's somewhat blank, somewhat shocked expression as he eyed the screen with his almost unreadable eyes. "Are you mad it's a girl?" She laughed heartily as she wrapped her dainty fingers around his much larger ones and gave them a gentle squeeze until he looked at her. "A little girl, Sasuke, can you believe that? _Daddy's little girl_?"

He gave her a slight nod, at a loss for words it seemed, until he opened his mouth. "I'm not mad.." Well, he didn't know what else he could say! He could even say he was a little less scared with Mako because he knew he could at least train with him... But would his daughter even want to be a shinobi? If she wanted to then it was safe to say she'd rather train with her mother because let's face it - he didn't know if he and his daughter would get along. He wouldn't be able to connect with her! _Great, both of my children will despise me_.

When Sakura got all cleaned up and she and Sasuke left the clinic, she clasped his hand within hers. "What's up with you?"

He knew if he lied to her she'd know. "This kid isn't going to like me either."

She dramatically yanked on his hand. "Don't talk like that Sasuke! Mako loves you and so will she!" He gave her the 'look', which caused her to sigh. "You think Mako doesn't love you because he tends to like to fall asleep in my arms? Or because he likes to throw things at you?" She waited and he kept giving her the 'look.' Another sigh. "You think when you were a baby you were always in your fathers presence? Being dotted on by him every second of the day? You told me yourself you remember your mother more clearly than your father because you were always by her side. He's seen more of me than you because of the missions you've been sent away on, and you wont let me take any patients at the hospital. He knows that I'm going to be rushing to his side whenever he has a need! He's more independent with you and frankly, that's a good thing. Also, for the record, he likes to play with you more than me. So there's that. Don't be so upset, okay? Because we are going to have a daughter!"

He let out a small inaudible sigh and nodded in agreement. That made him feel a little bit better. "I suppose."

"She's going to have you wrapped around her little pinky in no time." She smirked and rubbed her belly with her free hand. "I'm actually a little scared about the future, I don't know how you'd react to the boys flocking around her twenty four seven!" She snickered to herself as his brows furrowed. "Bringing a boy home to meet her parents."

He scoffed. "If she's _brave_ enough."

"Aww, her first boyfriend-"

His brows twitched further. "She wont have time for a boyfriend when she's training to become stronger."

"Haha, you keep telling yourself that. And one day you're going to have to walk her down the aisle..!"

"Like that's ever going to happen."

"Well if you don't walk her down the aisle, then she's probably going to ask Naruto to do it-"

"Hmph."

"Okay okay, I'll stop teasing you." She happily got up on her tippy toes and gave him a quick kiss. "Just because I got you so worked up, I'll tell you something. You ready?" He slightly cocked his heads at her words, but raised a curious eyebrow. "The name I have in mind for a little girl means morning beauty. Asami. Asami Uchiha. But of course if she looks like the name you have in mind then so be it!"

He thought about that name for a moment. Another name he'd never heard in his clan, another unique name. It sounded just right too. _Asami Uchiha_.

* * *

_It's a girl! #% One of you out of the three that guessed got the name right, since there's another name besides Asami that means Morning Beauty. Sorry again for not doing the honeymoon, it makes me all uncomfortable haha. Be my guest if you want to write it though! _

_SO. IT'S LATE. But I finished my graduation! I walked across the stage with swagger and partied all night at prom! It would have been up earlier but I was actually quite hungover. A big sorry to everyone! But my Youth Group has officially ended, grad stuff is done, so my schedule will be flowing like normal! _

_THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS! Big thanks to HAWKLLAMA for the 50th review! Wowzers!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	9. Chapter 9

_Handful_

_-chapter 9-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

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Sakura sat with slight worry etching her face as she watched Mako sit on the floor with his toys. About a week ago Sasuke had inquired as to why Mako had not peeped up yet, being a few months over a year old. At first she waved off his comment like it was nothing, informing him that toddlers all developed at different rates, but watching Mako look so intently down at his toys, she wondered if it was ever going to happen. She'd been prodding him and helping him try and pronounce simple words like mama or dada, but he only cocked his head at her with a silly little grin and continued to play on.

She crawled onto the floor carefully with her large pregnant belly, and stared at Mako with more determination in her eyes. "Mako, sweetie." He lifted his sparkling green eyes off his stuffed cat at stared at her lovingly with a partly toothy smile. "Say mama!" He merely blinked and continued to stare at her. "Ma? I know you can say ma!" With a sigh, she fully laid on her back on peered up at the ceiling. "I know you have vocal folds, Mako, you use them to wake me up every morning!"

"Mmmm!" He cheered to himself happily as he presented his toys to his mother, not knowing what exactly she wanted from him but he knew playing cute would distract her.

"Just say ma and I'll be happy!"

"Eheh!" He resorted to the age old tactic of giggling like a madman, which always made his mother laugh along with him. Which she did, turning over on her side so she faced him and that's when he saw it... Her fingers! His eyes widened and he desperately wanted to get away, and since he was too lazy to show his mother he could walk on his own little legs, and accepted defeat. Her fingers found their way to his sides and began to tickle him. Screeching loudly in both hysterics and complete agony, wrapping his little fingers around her much larger ones to try and rip them away from his extremely ticklish sides, but it seemed like they were glued on the spot - she was just too strong!

"Say it, saayyy eeeett!"

Mako continued to double over in a fit of unruly giggles, his legs darting in the air to try and kick away her arms but she was too damn persistent and he had the strength that wasn't even comparable to his mothers.

As the two laughed harder than they should have been, they never once noticed he figure leaning in the archway of the house with a bag at his feet. He watched them with slightly amused, prideful, loving eyes, taking in the scene with a warm heart. Whenever he was put onto a week long mission he felt slightly relieved that he would have a toy thrown at his face or baby food flung at him from a great distance, but as the missions progressed, he'd grown disgustingly homesick.

So when he walked in and witnessed the love of his life and his dear son he didn't want to disrupt the scene before him, so instead he leaned against the archway into the den and watched them.

When Mako let out a long, loud sigh, he fell back to lay on his back, trying to regain his breath after his mothers attack. Sakura sighed as well and snuggled up beside her son with her droopy eyelids saw the darkened figure in the doorway. With her kunoichi and motherly instincts being the first things to come forward, she bounded up to her feet, despite her large pregnant belly, and was ready to attack but when she caught a glance of those deep obsidian eyes, she groaned.

"You scared me!" She whined as she leaned back into the couch, burying her obviously embarrassed face into her palms. "You could have sent me into labor right there!"

"Sorry." He smirked as he crossed his arms, looking down upon his surprised looking son.

Mako's face seemed to brighten up like a lamp when he looked upon his fathers. He darted up faster than the speed of light. He stood on his feet, looking rather undecided. He took a moment to thin before he happily took prideful steps over to his fathers legs, much to his parents astonishment.

"Sakura, did you just-"

"I did!" Sakura darted back up to her feet with a shock filled face, blanched to the color of untarnished paper. "H-he walked! Without help, he just... Did it!"

With a smirk, Sasuke leaned down and picked Mako up from underneath his arms, sitting him on his hip and staring down upon his lit face. "When did you learn that?"

Mako, who was still pretty much in pure bliss at his fathers sudden appearance, blurted something out. "Daddy!"

"WHAT?!" Sakura jumped over to Sasuke's side and stared at Mako with a puzzled expression. "What did you just say!?"

Mako grimaced and pointed at Sasuke with his tiny finger. "Dada!" He cheered loudly, knowing his parents would get a kick out of these two sudden realizations. Just seeing the look on his mothers face but him so happy and so proud of himself he wished he could say more words.

"Saaaassukkeeee!" She cried as she threw her arms around Sasuke neck carefully, giving him a big kiss. "He said his first word! And it was _daddy_! Can you believe that?! If that doesn't make you think Mako adores you then you're deranged!"

"Hm." Sasuke couldn't start grimacing as he looked down at his son, who was looking more proud than anything. He knew his son had it in him, what Uchiha didn't have it in him? It just made it even better that it had to be daddy, to Sakura's surprise.

"Were you secretly teaching him? I only tried to make him say daddy a few times, but not as much as mama..."

Secretly he did teach Mako on numerous occasions to say daddy, but he'd never tell her that.

"Are you upset?"

"Of course not! I'm just really surprised.."

Sasuke pursed his lips together. "You're going to be upset after this..." She took a step back and looked at him curiously, raising a pink brow at his words. "I've been assigned another long mission..."

"What?! Sasuke! This is too much!" Pressing her hands against his chest, she looked deep into his eyes in hopes that he would deny the mission. But he was always so serious about his work and she knew it. "You just got back! When are you supposed to leave?"

"This evening."

"You know you don't have to accept every single request they put in! Are you even rested enough to go back out?" She could see the hint of guilt on his face and she thought for a millisecond she was over reacting but then she realized that in no way was she over reacting. Was Naruto purposely assigning Sasuke to these missions since they were currently feuding?

"Yes, I'm fine. I wouldn't have accepted if I wasn't."

Grumbling, she rested her head on his shoulder. "What makes it so important that you have to go? Isn't there someone else that can go in your place?"

He shook his head. He was better than everybody on his team, at least he thought, so he took it upon himself to be the strongest in their squad. "I wouldn't go unless it wasn't serious. The Sound is erupting with activity and with the upcoming Chunin exams being held there we can't risk anything."

It would be awful, she had to admit, if any old Orochimaru loyalists staged an attack during the exams. "So does that mean you're scheduled for the exams as well? To protect Naruto?"

"Don't know, it hasn't been released."

"Well.. I suppose if you're alright with going, then I won't object."

...

Three days later, Sakura felt her little girl begin to act up and her uterus begin to not feel too good. She wouldn't have been so nervous if it weren't for the fact that she still had a month to go with the little one, and as the pains began to grow she knew they weren't the famous fake contractions that she had with Mako. "Something's wrong.."

She tapped her fingers against her thigh for a moment, running through her head what may or may not be happening, and once she knew she should go see the doctor, she scooped Mako up into her arms and paced into the kitchen. Picking up the phone, she twirled the ringlet cord in her fingers, listening to the ringing noise until her mothers voice entered her ears. "Hey mom! I'm fine - well actually, that's what I called you about.. Well I don't know, I called because I need someone to watch Mako while I go there.. No Sasuke was assigned a mission a few days back. Mmhm. Alright, well hurry. Thanks a bunch."

When Mebuki arrived, she arrived in complete hysterics. "Sakura!" She cried as she rushed into the house, inspecting her one and only daughter carefully. "You're only eight months, it's not enough time!"

"Yeah I know. Hopefully I'm just going crazy and they are fake contractions. I had them a lot with Mako so I wouldn't be surprised." As she rubbed the bridge of her nose, she swiped the keys off the kitchen counter. "I'll call you at the hospital if something is up."

"Alright sweetie, make sure you call right away, I can't bear to wait!"

"Okay." She smiled as she paced to the door. "Thanks again for watching him."

When Sakura disappeared behind the door, Mebuki turned to look down at Mako, who was staring at the door with a quizzical look, his index finger pointing where she last was. "Mama?" Mebuki was left in pure shock.

When Sakura arrived at the hospital, Haru ushered her into the obstetricians room and coddled her until the man appeared before them. "Sakura, how are you feeling?"

"Not too good. These are real contractions I'm having, and I'm slightly worried it's because there's something wrong with her.."

"Mhm..." As he took in every word, he slid his hands into a fresh pair of gloves. "Now, have you been timing your contractions?"

"Yes I have. They're about five minutes apart now. I would have came sooner but I needed to see if they were growing closer together, which they have been. They're at around eight minutes." As she explained, she readied herself on the bed with Haru still nervously gripping her arm.

"There shouldn't be anything to worry about if there hasn't been any bleeding...?" She shook her head. "Alright, well, I'm going to check your dilation..." As he did the deed, Haru's eyes opened wide, clearly embarrassed.

When he retracted his hand, he thought for a moment before spilling the news. "Well, you're about four centimeters dilated. I'm going to have the fetal heart rate machine and the ultrasound machine brought in to make sure the baby is fine."

As she covered her lower half of her body back up with her dress, she sighed. "And what if nothing's wrong?"

"Then we'll have to proceed with a vaginal birth, that is if the little one is in a condition where that's possible." He stripped his hands of his gloves and tossed them into the trash. "Either way there's no way of delaying this baby." With that, he turned on his heel and paced out of the room, most likely to fetch those machines he was talking about.

Gripping Sakura's hand within her own, Haru sighed dramatically. "If nothing's wrong with her, there's nothing to worry about!"

"I know, I know.. I'd prefer if she just stayed in there a while longer so she can fully develop but if now's the time... Ugh." She rubbed her face in the palms of her hands. "Sasuke's not even here at the moment, stupid Naruto had him signed up mission after mission! He wont even be here to meet his little girl!"

"Aww, Sakura!" Haru nervously pet Sakura's long tresses. "I'll be here the whole time to hold your hand!"

"Thank you Haru... If you're here to help... Could you grab Naruto for me, if he's not busy?"

Nodding innocently, Haru took to her feet. "Of course!"

...

He ran as fast as he could, his long white coat billowing behind him as his frightened blue eyes darted every which way of the blank hospital walls. His heart beat faster than it had when he proposed to his wife, and that was a lot, so it was safe to say he was nearing the brink of having a heart attack. When he spotted the first doctor he saw in the hospital hallway, he gripped the mans light blue scrubs with his clenched fist and looked deeply into his eyes.

"Tell me where Sakura Haruno is! They said she was in the obstetri... Whatever it's called!" He barked with authority only found in his voice when people were in danger, and when Haru told him Sakura wanted to see him in her hospital room, he knew it was something serious.

"R-room 31B!" The doctor stuttered nervously, his eyes widened with shock that he was being almost chocked by the Hokage himself. When Naruto let go of his scrubs, he watched him dart down the hallway, not knowing what the hell that was for.

Naruto wrapped his large hand around the brass doorknob of the room labeled 31B and threw the door open, revealing the hospital bed that held his old team mate and oldest friend, Sakura. "Sakura!" He bellowed, just absolutely wanting to pass out from the scene of her being hooked up to all of these machines. "What happened?! What's wrong?!"

She looked at him so sweetly, and when her lips opened, she spoke with just a whisper. "Naruto, come here."

He was a mess. He felt like wailing like a complete baby, but for Sakura, he'd stay strong! He briskly walked over to the side of her hospital bed and looked down upon her with a sympathetic look on his face. "What is it, Sakura?"

"Come closer."

He leaned in, raising his brows.

Suddenly, she sat up and her strong fist gripped his collars with such force he thought he'd be shocked to death. Her face which was so sweet to begin with, contorted into an angry mess, her eyes looking rather threatening - well, at least more than they usually did.

"Why in the HELL did you send Sasuke on ANOTHER MISSION?!" She screeched so loud he thought his ear drums would burst and he began to fear for his life. "Now Sasuke isn't gonna be here to see his daughter be born! You're such a jerk, Naruto!"

"S-Sakura!" He placed his hands on her wrist nervously, gasping for air. "We needed him to go! I wouldn't have sent him if you were nine months pregnant but you're not!"

"Ugh!" She released him and watched guiltily as he stumbled back and fell against the wall. "Sorry, Naruto.. But still! It would be two weeks on an anbu mission, you shouldn't have done that in the first place!"

He shrugged, rubbing the back of his head that bumped against the wall. "He's one of the best on the team and the activity in the Sound is coming to a boil, we needed him to stop it! Tell me what's wrong with you Sakura! I'm really super worried!"

She cuddled back into her blankets, only her sharp emerald green eyes showing. "She's decided to come early. Nothing to worry about, though, we're both fine."

"Isn't it bad if she comes out early?"

"She's thirty six weeks along, so she'll most likely be fine. Just smaller than some babies."

"How long till she comes out?"

"Who can say. She's full of mysteries, this one." 

* * *

_Laboorrrrrrrrrrrr! Little Asami/mystery name is dying to meet their parents, so she wants to come out early! She didn't choose the best time though. _

_Again, thanks a bunch for all of the lovely reviews! You guys are so nice! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Handful_

_-chapter 10-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

Almost a day later, Sakura was still in complete agony. It got so bad she had to force Ino out of her room because just the sound of her voice made her want to kick the bucket. Ino thankfully took no offence, and took it upon herself to guard her best friends room to make sure they wouldn't walk in on that deathtrap. There she was, laying in her bed curled up into a perfect ball with her eyes clenched shut, with her little one moving about like crazy. "Why do you hate me?" She groaned to the little one as the contraction felt like the worst thing she had ever felt, even though with every passing contraction she thought that.

...

Hours later to her surprise, Kakashi and Naruto made their way past Ino and her protective nature, both men staring at Sakura sympathetically. "See! I told you! Look how bad our poor Sakura looks!" Naruto bounded to one side of her hospital bed while their old teacher made his way to the other side.

"Yes, you were right Naruto. How are you holding up Sakura? I hear you've been in here for a little over a day. And are you on medications?"

She shook her head as she pulled the blankets up to her nose. "No, I didn't want them."

"But if you're in pain, Sakura..." Naruto interjected.

"No! I don't want the medications because it can possibly do damage to her, and she's already in a vulnerable state!"

"O-okay okay Sakura, I get it!"

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "When is Sasuke going to be back?"

"Hmm, maybe a day or two, at most."

"UGH!"

...

More excruciatingly painfully long hours later, she finally told herself that it was pointless to harbor hope that Sasuke would return early from his mission and decided to call it quits. There was no more trying to slightly delay the birth because it was coming quicker than his immanent arrival. So when her doctor paced through the door to come and check on her and the baby, she gave him a slight nod and he knew it was time. He left the room and as he did, her trusty friends Ino and Haru scattered to her sides and took her hands, telling her that they were going to be there for her. Naruto entered the room with a small caring smile and told her he had to be there for her, since Sasuke was absent. He perched himself up on the counter, far from the view of 'everything' out of respect, and waited patiently for the doctor to return. She thought it was cute how fatherly he already acted.

When her doctor returned with a nurse and a midwife trainee, she knew it was _really_ time. The stirrups were set in place, greatly intimidating the three in the room who had no idea what they were, the monitors were checked, and lastly, Sakura was checked.

She closed her eyes and gave herself a mental pep talk. _Just pretend these hands I'm holding are Sasuke's...! Even though they're incredibly small and moisturized.. Nevermind. I can do this! Little maybe Asami is smaller than Mako, and if I could deliver him then I can certainly do this_! When she reopened her eyes, she found all eyes looking intently at her. "Let's do this."

When it all began the three newbies in the room were immediately caught off guard, with Naruto being the worst. Perched up on the counter, he wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his face into the clothing on his knees and every time he heard a noise of pain come from his old teammate, he told himself that it would be all over soon. Ino was a little bit stronger than Naruto, she had to be when she was on the sidelines and her poor hand was encased within Sakura's own. She'd never say anything but it was the realest physical pain she could remember and when she looked over at Haru, she could see they were in the same boat. Yet they nodded in silent unison and shut their traps because they knew it was nothing compared to what Sakura was going through.

For a split second she almost felt sorry for Ino and Haru because after Mako she could see how red and pained Sasuke's own hand looked, but once she gave the first real push, she immediately forgot about their predicament. Mako was a slow start but with this one, a hell of a lot of pressure already came forth as if her body was just trying to get this little one out as quick as could be. It was only a few small pushes and a few large pushes later that she was out.

She was out in a whirlwind of raspy little cries. Sakura let her head hit the incredibly comfortable pillow and a long awaited sigh of relief followed. Naruto uncurled himself from his ball position and pounced off the counter, watching with widened awe-struck eyes, eyeing the nurse that carefully brought the newborn over to the counter to clean her up. "That was amazing Sakura!"

"Yeah Sakura, you just pushed that tiny little baby out! That was fantastic!" Ino cooed happily as she pat Sakura's brow gently with a small folded cloth, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

"What's her name?"

"I don't want to decide on a name without Sasuke 'seeing' her first.." She smiled lovingly as the nurse finished swaddling the little girl and paced over, carefully placing the tiny bundle in her anxiously awaiting arms. She was a lot smaller than Mako was and looked little immensely fragile, as if a sudden movement would break her whole body. "She's so tiny.."

"Aweh~! Sakura I wanna hold her after!" Surprisingly that high pitch voice came from Naruto, who was kneeling beside her bed, looking upon the innocent little face with an ooey-gooey expression filled with uncle-y love.

"Then me!" Ino piped up just as Haru opened her mouth and grimaced when Sakura nodded with a slight chuckle.

"She's so precious, look at that cute lil' round face! And those tiny little fingers poking out!"

"Hehe yeah!" Naruto's grin widened as he gently pet the little girls tiny fingers that were curled around the blanket. "They're so cute!"

When Sakura carefully placed the little bundle of joy into Naruto's nervous arms, she watched his movements like a hawk, but as he held her close as if he'd been holding babies for a century, she nestled back into the bed. He even went as far as speaking baby to her with puffed out lips and a high pitched voice that sent shivers down their spines. "You're so cute... Yes you are! So cute! Sooo cuuuuteee~!"

This continued on for a few hours until Sakura fell into a deep slumber and her friends were ushered out. A nurse rolled a crib into the room and beside Sakura's bed and made sure the little one was tended to before being laid down into the crib for a nice nap.

...

Both mentally and physically exhausted, Sasuke drug his feet through the empty streets of the Uchiha district, the only thing he could see was his cozy home and warm bed. He hadn't slept in his bed in a little over two weeks and it was seemingly the best object that had ever been invented. When he saw his abode in plain view he gathered up enough strength to make it through the next block. He passed underneath the archway that welcomed you to the house, continued along the gravel pathway and up to the front door, where a white shred of white paper was taped to match his eye level. A part of him wanted to crumple it up and just get to bed but shredded paper taped on doors could have a significant message, so he held it between his fingers and peeled it off the wall.

He squinted at the hastily written note and tried to make sense of it all but his blurred vision prevented him from reading it's contents, so he slid it into his pocket and unlocked the door to his house. He knew above all he needed to have some fresh, cold, water in his system rather than the warm stale water he'd been living off of for the week. It wasn't late when he managed to read the clocks hands, so he was slightly curious as to where Sakura and Mako were when he didn't see them right away in the den. He was equally surprised when he entered the kitchen and she wasn't in there with Mako on her hip as she was cooking something up. He then thought they were most likely up in the nursery or the master bedroom.

So he took a glass cup out of the overhead cabinet and ran the tap until only the coldest water poured into the sink, holding the glass underneath it and catching the amount he desired, then switching the tap off. He pressed the cold glass to his lips and took a sip of the exhilarating water, jolting sparks through his body. He was no less tired or sore, but the feeling of having fresh water in his system made him feel a whole lot better. Feeling as if he had enough energy to get up the stairs, he made way toward the staircase when he remembered the scrap of paper hastily shoved into his pocket.

Taking a sip of his water and slowly making his way up, he began to read the note. **_Sasuke, Sakura has gone into premature labor, no need to worry though, everything's fine! When you get back, get to the hospital asap! -_**_** Mebuki**. _At first with his sleep daze shrouding his judgement he didn't understand the note, so when he finished the last step of the staircase he stopped to squint at the paper skeptically.

He took another sip of energy inducing water and read the note with new eyes. **_Premature labor_**. As quick as could be, he set the water down on the nearest surface and was out of the door much faster than when he entered. He pushed his way through the crowds of the streets. Initially he was somewhat being careful with his movements but when he saw that large hospital before him he could care less if he bumped people, so that's what he did until the path was cleared to get to her.

He pushed his way through the swing doors of the hospital and saw that friend of Sakura's, who knew right away what he was there for. She hurriedly lead him down a plethora of unimaginably long hallways until he saw a crowd of people. He saw Naruto with his arms crossed, speaking to the others with a large friendly smile on his face, nodding to the words of his old Sensei, who was leaning against the wall outside of her room. Ino was was interjecting Kakashi's sentence with her own thoughts on whatever topic they were speaking of. When he approached them they all quieted down and smiled, moving out of the way so he could get to her closed door. He took it as a good sign that non of them were crying. He wrapped his hand around the doorknob of the room and got in as quick as he could but as silently as humanly possible.

After he slowly shut the door, he scanned the room. Sakura was laying without sound in the hospital bed, her eyelids closed, telling him she was tired enough to not be spending time with their newborn. Beside her bed was a intimidating incubator holding non other than the newest addition to their family. He carefully approached as if he were not welcome there, but this contraption was rubbing him the wrong way. It looked as if it were for a baby that needed specific health care, yet upon further inspection, his daughter was hooked up to no machine's tubes or wires.

With this information he reached into the incubator and carefully picked up the small child, a tad more scared than he was with Mako when he was first born solely for the fact that she was a lot smaller than he was. She was so small, so frail and breakable, it terrified him. He hated knowing she was denied the few extra months of developing, and not knowing too much about the process, he wasn't sure if she would turn out okay because of this. However, despite the difference in her size than an average newborn, she looked completely fine. She sported the big blubbery flustered rosey pink cheeks Mako had for a while, the healthy pink tinted skin, chubby little arms, puckered lips, fine hair that was without color. She looked perfect.

Sasuke took a seat beside Sakura's bed and cradled the little girl close, not at all close to being finished gazing upon her. The anger of not being there when she entered this world was washed away and replaced with love, immense love for this squirmy little thing. She fidgeted in his arms at the sensation of not being in her peaceful incubator, her mouth twisting and pursing into a thin line as her brows and eyelids pressed together as her sleep came to an end. He didn't feel at all guilty because he wanted to properly meet her.

When her eyelids opened slowly, her eyes watered at the burning fluorescent lights above their heads, so quickly, he held his hand to shelter her poor eyesight form the bright lights. He smirked when her eyelids fully opened. She had eyes that sparkled like the emeralds her mothers own eyes were known for, much like her brothers light colored green eyes at birth. Big and beautiful.

"You.. are Asami Uchiha."

* * *

_Happy Fathers Day! Look, lil' Asami was born! Hooray! Next chappy will be happy family times!  
I watched The Fault In Our Stars last night and I hate everyone that told me to watch it. If you like crying this movie is perf for you. So I wrote this Sasuke part listening to depressing music and I'm not sure if it shows. If it is a tad depressing, I'm sorry. That movie made me feel things I've never felt before! With TFIOS being centered around sickness and hospitals, it kind of influenced my writing a bit with the Sasuke scene. WATCH THE MOVIE OR READ THE BOOK! _

_Again, thanks for the reviews! If this story makes you happy, review! Because reviews make me happy! _

_Dsiclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	11. Chapter 11

_Handful_

_-chapter 11-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

When she awoke she awoke with a sense of giddy excitement. She hadn't gotten the time to fully embrace her newly renewed motherhood since she'd been inwardly and outwardly exhausted, but now with her body rested to the point where she only felt slightly tired, she could dot upon her newborn daughter. She rubbed her eyes slowly and when finished, glances over to the incubator beside her bed. She squinted at it nervously. _Where is she_?

Sakura was about to throw the bedding off of her body when she caught a glance of the body on the other side of her bed. It was as still as stone sitting upon the plastic hospital chair, slightly hunched over what appeared to be her newborn daughter. They didn't take immediate notice of her movement, so she sat as motionless as possible, surveying the two. It didn't take long for her to notice it was non other than her husband, who's late arrival was causing her a lot of stress. As she expected, his attention was completely being sucked in by the little one, who was blindly moving her fingers about in the brisk air that surrounded them. She let out a dreamy sigh as she laid back into the bed and that's when they locked eyes.

"Sakura, I'm sorry-"

"Technically it's Naruto's fault." She chuckled lightly as she adjusted the pillow behind her head. "He's already apologized profusely."

He gave her a slight nod, still thinking to himself that he didn't _have_ to accept the mission yet he did anyways. But he wasn't going to start an argument. "So.. Is she okay?"

"Yes, she's fine. Just smaller than she should have been. She took almost two days to show up." He smirked.

"Are _you_ okay?"

"I'm fine as well. So, what's her name going to be?"

He knew Sakura was a trooper. "We're going to keep your name choice."

"Asami.." She smiled as she glanced downward to look at her little one. "She's adorable isn't she? Naruto fell in love with her-"

"Naruto got to see her already?" The tone of his voice changed drastically and his eyes sharpened. "Before me?"

"Well Sasuke she was born a little under a day ago, of course he came to see her.." She knew he'd be angry if he found out she left out another tidbit of information.. "In fact he was in the room was she was born!"

"What?!" His brows knitted together and his jaw clenched like stone. She could see now that their petty rivalry even extended into family business. "Why did you let him in?"

"You think I'd want to be in here alone? He asked me, he didn't just barge in and demand to be there for me." Sasuke pursed his lips together. "He was too cowardly to even be by my side, he was on the counter curled up in a ball. He didn't see 'anything' if that's what you're worried about. Plus it wasn't just him that got to see her before you did, more like the whole village had to pay a visit. Besides, you meeting her a little late isn't going to make her love you any less."

He shrugged but he was glad she always knew what to say to him.

A little later Sakura's parents had arrived to visit. Usually Sasuke steered clear of any room that had both her mother and her father in it, so when he did not fidget when they showed their faces, she was surprised. In Mebuki's arms was Mako who looked absolutely grumpy with his furrowed brows, pacifier in his mouth, blotchy red tear stained cheeks, and clenched little fists, but when he saw his father he brightened up completely. His blue pacifier dropped to the floor as he opened his mouth and screeched the word "daddy" as he threw his arms up into the air. He made little grabby hands until his grandmother noticed and placed him into his father's arms.

Kizashi, having worked overtime the past few days, did not get the chance to visit his daughter as often as his wife, so once he laid eyes on her, he rushed to the opposite side of Sakura, eyeballing Sasuke dangerously. "Oh Sakura, how are you feeling? I''m so sorry you had to go through that... alone." He purposely emphasized the word alone and shot Sasuke a sideways glance, full of hatred.

"Oh, but I wasn't alone. I had Ino, and Haru, and Naruto with me!"

"Yes, well, it's tradition to have the father by the side so he can cut the umbilical cord!"

"Kizashi, be quiet You weren't there when I gave birth to Sakura! Too busy working, was it?"

Sakura heartily laughed. "Too chicken I think."

Sasuke smirked when the man looked defeated by the two women. _At least I was there for one_. He looked back down to the squirmy little Mako who insisted on telling him something although there was an obvious barrier between the language they spoke. Sakura told him about the first time they had introduced Mako to Asami. He didn't take it quite well. It wasn't Asami who angered him, it wasn't the competition, it was the fact that the attention shifted from him to this wrinkled thing in his mothers arms. Apparently he cried the entire time.

So sitting on his fathers lap, he was more than thrilled to have his attention, especially after Sasuke had 'disappeared' for a while. Out of the corner of his eye he watched as his grandfather swooned over the pink wrinkled thing everybody loved so much. He didn't understand what exactly the big deal was, or why his mother had been in this bed for what seemed like ages. He wasn't going to give it the time of day so he held his toy up proudly and presented it to his father, whose attention was thankfully on him.

"Look at you!" Kizashi cooed loudly, presenting Asami for all to see, twirling around dramatically. "This one better have pink hair!"

If any child of his came out with pink hair he hoped it would be a daughter and not a son. It was now or never with Asami.

"You know dad, I've accepted the fact that I'm going to have a brood of dark haired children."

"Just one, Sakura, that's all I'm asking for."

When Naruto came through the door, the entire atmosphere changed. Everyone except Sasuke welcomed him in with open arms and when they finally looked each other in the eyes, both squinted angrily. As the others glanced at each other nervously, Naruto broke his glare and swooped in beside Kizashi, stealing Asami right from his arms. "Isn't she just amazing?! I still can't believe I got to be there when she was born!"

"Heh, yeah that's pretty amazing." Kizashi commented smugly, making sure to shoot Sasuke a glance as he said so. "What an honor that is."

Sasuke stood up tall to look Naruto straight in the eyes. "Either you shut up or you leave."

"Yeah, you gonna make me?!" Months of unresolved issues from their individual weddings left a growing tension between the two, and that never ended well.

Sasuke pursed his lips together. "Yes I will."

"Okay boys settle down. You're getting Asami all worked up!" Mebuki interjected with a reprimanding tone, pointing down to the little bundle who's face was scrunching up in her sleep. "So shut it."

"Eheh, sorry~" Naruto chuckled and tiptoed away from the angered Uchiha, cooing to her sleeping face like a madman. He sat in the corner of a room and coddled the newborn happily while Sasuke merely shook his head and returned to listening to Mako's rants with very few words he could understand. He did not fret because he knew he'd get Naruto one way or another, without his in-law's getting in the way.

...

A few days later Sakura was signed out of the hospital and was back in her cozy home to welcome their little princess into her new nursery, which to Sakura's amusement, was painted pink by her demands. "Look Asami, your own room~!" Gently kissing her daughters forehead as she slept away, she approached the brand new crib, rocking her in the process. "And I think it looks great."

Sasuke could do without the highly festooned room. He didn't mind the pink, or the girly little sheets that fitted the mattress in the crib, but Ino and Haru had gone severely overboard on this nursery. It had painted butterflies and lady bugs everywhere with flowers dotting the walls, yellow trimming on the windowsills, stuffed animals in every damn crevice, he couldn't handle it! It was a pure eyesore! It was far too bright for her sensitive little eyes. He was going to have to figure something out before she goes blind.

For now he stood in the archway with Mako in his arms, who was watching his mother walk around with the tiny pink thing in her arms, still wondering why there was so much fuss about that bundle of blankets.

Once Sakura laid Asami down into her crib, she twirled around and stared at Sasuke happily. "We better get to bed now before she wakes up. Which will be soon. Time to go to bed Mako sweetie!" She stole Mako away from Sasuke's arms and showered him with long awaited kisses that she'd been saving for the many days of not getting one on one time with her baby boy. "I love you so so so sooo much Mako baby!" She bounded into his room, changed him into his pajamas, and tucked him into his crib, making sure he had his stuffed cat in his arms before giving him a goodbye kiss.

When she slowly closed his bedroom door, she dramatically fainted into Sasuke's arms, wrapping her own around his neck as she planted a kiss on his lips. "I'm soo tired, but I just want to stay up all night and watch them sleep~!"

"You need as much sleep as you can get." He smirked against her lips and carefully picked her up, knowing she just wanted to stay outside their bedroom doors and wait for them to wake up. She had bags under her eyes that he wanted eradicated, and the only way that was going to happen is if she got her much needed sleep after bringing Asami into this world. He paced into their bedroom and placed her onto the edge of her side of the bed.

"I can't wait until they get to the age where they come into our bed when they're scared or want to snuggle their parents~"

His brow twitched. That wouldn't bode well with him. He wasn't worried about himself but Sakura on the other hand, hogged up a ton of the beds space and moved around constantly in her sleep. If the children were to sneak into their bed they'd be in for an accidental kick in the face. "The bed isn't big enough." He told her as he changed into his nightwear, pulling his shirt over his head in a flash.

"Yes it is." She cooed as she too got changed into her nightie, to be specific, a specially made nightie for nursing mothers that looked ridiculous. "It would be so cute. I'll be here, on my side of the bed, you'll be on your side of the bed, and they'll be right here, in the middle, looking all cute and innocent."

He rolled his eyes as he turned around and climbed into their bed, Sakura immediately attaching herself to his side. "Mhm."

"Sasuke, they are the best things that ever happened to me." As she adjusted herself in the bed, she kissed his cheek as light as a feather. "Thank you."

His brows met in the middle. "Why thank you? I didn't do anything.." He only then realized she had fallen asleep in that split second.

* * *

_Asami's home!_ _There will be a time skip next chapter!  
_

_I just wanted to sort a few things out. I'm a 17 year old girl that just graduated high school. I'm not a medical professional. I get all of my information from various google searches. If you take what I write into serious consideration for when you have a child you may need to rethink if that's a good decision. Lol. As for the pain medication, I'll clarify what I googled, found from various websites. I'd link but unfortunately FF doesn't allow links in documents. I was basing the "no pain medications" off of an **epidural**, since that's the most common anesthetic for labor and birth. _

_A) Epidurals lengthen labor. B) They tripe the risk of perineal tear, RIIIIP. C) Quadruple's the chance that the baby will be face up. D) Can dramatically lower your blood pressure, which can lead to a lack of oxygen getting to your baby. E) The drugs that are administered **do enter the blood stream of the baby**. F) Can activate a stress response and effect a newborn immune system. G) They have been shown to cause fetal bradycardia, a decrease in fetal heart rate. H) Women are more than two times as likely to stop breastfeeding. I) "Epidural analgesia is a highly effective form of pain relief and a useful intervention in certain , epidurals and spinals also cause unintended side effects in both the mother and baby, and interfere with the natural birth process and bonding between mother & some cases epidurals may be beneficial, but the evidence suggests that they should not be used as routinely as they currently are in the U.S. and other industrialized countries._"

_Based on the risks I wrote above, yes I think Sakura wouldn't want to take the risk. She delivered Mako naturally, but he was a baby that was born on his due date. Asami; however, was months early, 36 weeks along, so she was already smaller and still needed the development she would have gotten with those few months. Based on that I would think Sakura would stick with her natural plan, as have a few of my family friends, no matter how long the labor. My friend was in labor for almost three days without medications. _

_I highly doubt if any of you are going to get pregnant you're going to tell your doctor/midwife that you do/don't want an epidural because an author of a Naruto fanfiction told you otherwise. That'd be ridiculous. And just fyi, I've read some fanfics with severely wrong information. And mpreg. (Nothing against it, I just don't get it.)_

_Love you guys and the reviews! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!_


	12. Chapter 12

_Handful_

_-chapter 12-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

Sasuke went about with his daily routine in the morning. Wake up, take a shower, and make himself a cup of tea. He was just passing the hallway to go and wake Sakura up when he heard a sneeze from the crack of Mako's room. With his free hand he slowly pushed open the door to reveal the two year old standing in his crib, staring at his father with a screwed up expression. "No good."

He raised a brow and took a cautious step in. What Mako had he didn't quite want. "You don't feel good?" Mako shook his head profusely. "Why?" Mako forced a dramatic cough which led on the real coughs afterward. Sasuke rolled his eyes and stepped out of the room to get to his bedroom, leaving Mako in a fuss. Usually he'd let Sakura sleep in but she told him that she was trying to get Asami to begin eating baby cereal, so he was under strict instructions not to listen to Asami's cries for a bottle or her mother, and to get Sakura. Plus he didn't know what to do with Mako, so he stood in front of her side of the bed, sipping at his tea as he nudged the side of the bed with his leg in hopes she'd wake up. "Sakura." She groaned and buried her face into her pillow. He nudged her back with his foot. "Wake up. Asami's whining in her room and Mako is _sick_."

With another groaned, she pushed herself up from the depths of the bed into a sitting position, rubbing her eyes slowly. "Ugh, it's so early... I bet you woke her up when you woke up. And Mako's sick? How bad?"

"I don't know, I'm not the doctor. He was coughing, sneezing, and sniffling."

"Sounds like a cold." She climbed out of bed and steered clear of Sasuke. "Mako saw you first, so you're going to have to take care of him. I need to get Asami to stop breast feeding."

He pursed his lips together. "I don't want to take care of a sick kid."

"Well you sure as hell aren't going to make Asami stop breast feeding, so yes you're taking care of Mako today." She stated clearly as she changed out of her pajamas and into some warm clothes. "And I don't want Asami getting sick, so.."

"So, what? Mako and I are getting quarantined?" He pressed, squinting at her as she finished changing and began to tie her hair back. "What got you in such a bad mood."

"You know why." She grumbled and left the room presumably to go coddle Asami like she always did. He liked her better when she was pregnant. He scoffed as she left the room, following suite, watching as she opened Asami's bedroom door, cooing as she disappeared. He turned to look into Mako's bedroom. He was still standing in his crib, giving his father the stink eye for leaving him.

He closed the door behind him, taking a sip of his tea. "Looks like it's just you and me." He set his tea down on the nearest surface and reached inside Mako's crib, heaving his heavy body up then right back down on the floor. He wailed dramatically as he pointed into his crib toward the stuffed cat until Sasuke reached through the bars and handed it to him. He sat on the floor beside his son, leaning against the crib, reaching over and swiping his tea off the surface and taking another sip.

"Pazzy!"

He looked down at Mako then to where he pointed, his blue pacifier in the crib. "You want your pacifier?" Mako nodded. Again he reached over and handed Mako the small plastic thing that was immediately shoved into his mouth.

He was already bored. Couldn't he just take Mako outside, sit him on a blanket, and train all day? No, because Mako was an attention hog. So he was forced to stay in the house until Mako got better, which for all he knew could be multiple days. All of his paperwork was downstairs and doing that would give him some piece of mind, so he looked down at Mako for a brief moment. "Get all of the toys you want." The little one nodded promptly, got to his feet, and began to scavenge around for his favorites. When his short arms were filled to the brim with that he enjoyed the most, Sasuke scooped him up and snuck out of the room to be face to face with Sakura and Asami.

Although she was born about a month prematurely, Asami was perfectly healthy at the age of one, no longer smaller than the rest. When she finally sprouted hair that wasn't just baby fuzz, both Sakura and Sasuke let out a sigh of relief. Just like her brother and father, she had the famous dark Uchiha hair, though unlike the boys, hers had a red tint rather than the blue. The only thing he could do without would be the ridiculous outfits her women friends bought for her. They were frilly, adorned with ribbons, lacy trim, and horrible vibrant colors. Currently she was in her fluffy yellow onesie pajamas that took the resemblance of a duck and her hair was tied into two separate small pigtails with matching yellow ribbons. Her expression was blank, her eyelids weighing down as she chomped down on her orange pacifier.

"Sammy!" Mako reached out to his little sister happy after he removed his pacifier from his mouth, making it clear he wanted to greet her but Sasuke took a step back.

"Your mother doesn't want you hanging out with you sister today, Mako." Mako opened his mouth wide, appalled by this revelation.

Sakura pursed her lips and eyed Sasuke dangerously, and once she looked back to Mako her eyes returned to their ooey gooey pile of love for her son. "That's not it at all sweetie, you're not feeling good today, right? You wouldn't want your little sister to not feel good, right?" He shrugged, not understanding what exactly he did wrong. "We've just gotta wait till you feel better!"

"Hn." Sasuke took a step to the side, having had enough of this conversation, and walked passed her and Asami, who was now looking over her mothers shoulder to her father and brother. Asami was up almost all night because her baby teeth were still poking out, which was the main factor of her bad mood this morning, but usually it was Sasuke who woke the children up at their appropriated times. He never fed Asami when he woke her up due to obvious reasons but most of the time when waiting for Sakura's alarm to go off, he'd hang out with her every single morning unless he was sent out of the village. It seemed like Asami didn't appreciate the change in routine when she started bawling her eyes out once Sasuke and Mako disappeared around the corner and down the stairs. He would have loved to say good morning to her this morning but since Sakura was such a worry wart about either of them being sick, he would leave the morning greetings all up to her, for the better.

He paced down the stairs and into the living room where the kids had their own play area set up, setting Mako in there before he paced over to the large desk where he kept most of his work related items. The desk looked a bit wonky since Sakura child-proofed it, profusely making sure the corners were outfitted with soft things to prevent eye-loss and head dents. He nudged the chair out from it's tucked in position and took a seat, sighing as he realized just how much shit he had to sort through, which a good portion of it could have been handed to Naruto, but he was feeling generous.

As he began scribbling down whatever he had to write down, Mako began the usual groaning for attention as he played with his toys, eyeing his father with a cranky looking face. He shuffled to his feet and waddled over to the fence that kept him from running about the house, wrapping his fingers around it as he pursed his lips. He still was not paying attention to him! "Waugh!"

He watched as Sasuke lifted his gaze off his paperwork, set his pen down and turn to look at him. "Excuse me?" He raised a singular brow. He knew his father didn't appreciate it when he yelled at him. "Use your words."

"Please!" Mako made innocent little grabby hands at his father in hopes he'd understand.

"What is it you want?"

He pointed to him. "Yes?"

Sasuke sighed and stood up, making his way over, picking Mako up, sitting back at his desk with Mako on his lap. "Don't touch my stuff." He warned Mako as he flipped his pen between his fingers, waiting for his sons response but all he got was a 'wow' as Mako grabbed the pen from his fingers, attempting to do that himself. He failed horrible and the pen dropped to the floor, leaving him in hysterics. "What did I say.." He carefully leaned down and picked the pen up. "You can play with it but don't put it in your mouth."

He grabbed a different pen and began writing, and groaned when he realized it didn't match the other pens color. He looked back down to Mako to exchange pens and watched as he stuffed the pen into his mouth. "Mako!" He snatched the pen out of his mouth and placed it down on the desk. He did the same with Mako, putting him back down on the floor. "Do whatever you want."

He cried dramatically and laid down, looking up at the ceiling with a quivering lip. He didn't move. He was too upset. Maybe his daddy would notice how heartbroken he was.

Sasuke returned to his paperwork.

"Oh baby, please stop crying." Sakura cooed gently as she wrestled Asami's pajamas off her body, throwing them into the hamper once they were off. She narrowly dodged the orange pacifier. "And I told you not to throw things.. I don't understand why you're so upset." She pried Asami's diaper off her body and hurriedly sat her in the luke warm water of the tub. "Look, your rubber ducky that you love so much."

As Asami's interest perked as she glanced at the floating pink rubber duck with flowers printed on it's sides, Sakura carefully undid her small pigtails and set the ribbon aside. Asami sniffled in the tub as her mother began to pour water all over her, petting the ducky slowly, looking into it's eyes with her own. "Mama?"

"Yes sweetie?" Sakura carefully poured water over Asami's head, making sure non of it poured over her face or else she would throw a huge fit. She pointed to the eyes of the ducky, which were just little black beady eyes. "What about them? They look like daddy's?" Asami smiled and nodded sweetly, looking at the ducky happily.

When Sakura finished washing her, she toweled her hair and body dry, fit her with a fresh diaper, helped her into white leggings, shimmied a light pink dress over her head, then put little white socks on her cute little feet. "Do you waaanntt... One ribbon or two ribbons?" She watched as Asami contemplated and pointed to both of the ribbons in her moms hands. "Both, okay!" Carefully, she brought up one side of Asami's hair and tied it up, then the same with the other side, being cautious. If she pulled just one strand of hair too hard Asami would scream at the top of her lungs and not trust Sakura for almost up to a week.

"Daddy!" She put on her sweetheart smile as her big darling emerald green eyes sparkled brightly, her face lighting up. "Pwease?"

"Baby, Mako isn't feeling good, do you want to not feel good too?"

She thought for a second. "Yes?"

Sakura groaned and wiped her face. "First I have to feed you."

"No!"

"Yes sweetie, you need to eat." Scooping her up, she paced into the kitchen and sat her down into Mako's high chair, adjusting it so she could fit in there. She looked thoroughly confused. This was not usually how she ate. "Baby cereal! Mako started eating baby cereal before you, don't you want to do the same?"

Asami stared at the box in her moms hand and cocked her head. Sakura took that as a '_I guess I'll try it._' She watched suspiciously as Sakura prepared a small bowl of the throw-up looking stuff, and presented it in front of her throne. She raised a small black brow, inspecting it. She opened her mouth and waited for the silver spoon, but as it drew closer she changed her mind and smacked it away from her face. "No!"

"You don't know until you try it.. And no more smacking it away!" She dipped the spoon back into the bowl and carefully led it into her mouth, watching her expression.

Asami's brows furrowed intensely. She switched the cereal from one side of her mouth to the other and then forced herself to swallow it. Once it was swallowed she puckered and looked at her mom with a sassy look in her eyes, screaming '_I don't appreciate that taste_.'

"Well this is what you're eating from now on so please keep trying it."

When Asami finished three quarters of the bowl, she shook her head at her mother. "No." _I'm done_. Her face was completely serious, much like her father. "Daddy." Her face was threatening. _Or I will cry_.

"Ugh, Asami, you don't want to get sick or you'll be grumpy for a week!"

She still looked threatening. So Sakura sighed, defeated, and picked Asami up out of the high chair and brought her downstairs to the living room, where she watched Mako lay down as if he were dead at his dads feet.

"I think you killed him." She mentioned as she placed Asami down on the floor. Sasuke looked over his shoulder to comment but was cut off when Asami screeched happily and darted into the room, almost tripping over her big brother on the way there, but she then threw herself onto Sasuke's shin, happily hugging it.

"He's being dramatic." He commented as he gently brought Asami up onto his lap. He knew Asami wouldn't stuff pens into her mouth so he was happy to keep her with him whilst he worked. Asami cuddled up to his chest happily, watching him with high interest as that black stick thing in his fingers made lines on the white page. "But he's been quiet for a while."

"Poor baby~" Sakura cooed as she strode up behind Sasuke, wrapping her arms around his neck and nestling her face into the warmth of the nape of his neck.

"Your mood swings are annoying." He smirked as he continued writing, leaning his head against hers.

"At least mine are temporary, you're always just a big jerk~!"

* * *

_Didn't know how to end that chappy, so I just did it..! Hope you like fluffy cute lil babies. And I hope Sasuke isn't too OOC. Tell me if he is please!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	13. Chapter 13

_Handful_

_-chapter 13-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

The next day Sasuke was shoved into Mako's room. Mako's cold had escalated to the point where he was excessively coughing and it posed a threat to the rest of them. Yet Sakura still made Sasuke the caretaker of this sick child. "Can you at least make me some tea?" He called out as she left down the hallway with Asami in her arms, watching angrily as she shook her head at him.

"I'm going to go get Mako some cough suppressants. I'll be back soon." She called out sweetly as she disappeared around the corner. Grumbling to himself, he turned around to face Mako, who was standing in his crib holding the bar like he did every morning. He pulled the pacifier from his mouth and raised his eyebrows at his daddy.

"Mama?" He questioned as he swapped his eyes from looking at his father and to the still empty doorway. "Where's she?"

He felt bad for Mako. Cough suppressants did not taste well, so with this information, he knew Mako would hate them for at least a week. "She went to the store." Not only did he not get to take his morning shower, but he was thirsty, so he gave Mako a look. "If you stay here and be quiet for a few minutes I'll give you one piece of candy _later,_ but you can't tell your mother. Okay?"

He furiously nodded with a big toothy grin, his face lighting up. Candy was a rarity in this house and whenever he had the chance to get him a piece, he'd take it. He couldn't tell that the candy Sasuke was offering with sugarless. "Yes!" He sat down in his crib like a little angel.

"Good. So, stay here." He held his hand up to Mako to show him to stay put, and left out of the boys room. Quickly, he paced down the stairs and into the kitchen, finding the ingredients he desired for his morning tea, beginning to prepare it. He tapped his fingers against the counter as he waited for his water to reach the appropriate heating level.

He decided against standing idly around so he paced into the den and gathered his unfinished paperwork. He returned to the kitchen, swiped his tea off the counter, and made his way into the foyer when he saw him. "Mako!" He yelled when he spotted the boy standing at the top of the stairs. He wasn't worried he was going to try and walk down them, because secretly he let Mako use the stairs when Sakura wasn't around... "How did you get out of your crib?"

Mako smiled deviously. "It's a secret!" He watched how confused Sasuke grew as he suspiciously sipped his tea, eyeballing him. As he opened his mouth to talk again, both of their heads snapped forward to look at the front door, which was being unlocked. "Mama!" Sasuke's eyes widened as the door's lock fully turned and the door opened, revealing Sakura and Asami.

"What are you doing down here?" She questioned him as she turned to close the door behind her, and Sasuke took his chance, he looked at Mako who looked at him and he made the motion of '_get the hell out of here_,' but Mako didn't understand. When she swirled around again, she saw Sasuke giving the top of the stairwell a death glare, so immediately she thought there was something bad up there but whens he turned to look, she only saw Mako, looking completely innocent. "Mako! Get away from those stairs!"

Sasuke groaned. "He knows how to use the stairs." He paced passed Sakura, up the stairs, and scooped Mako up. He needed answers. He continued down the hallway and right into the green colored bedroom, inspecting it. The crib was in the same place with the front gate still locked in place. "How the hell did you do it?" He set Mako down who bounded to the corner where he kept all of his toys and played with them happily, ignoring his fathers question. Sasuke set his things down on the floor before he paced over to the crib, eyeing it over and pushing on the front gate.

He shook it off and took his seat on the floor, gathering up his scrolls and papers. "How do you know he can use the stairs?" Sakura appeared before him with a raised eyebrow, and in her hand he spied the small bottle for Mako.

"Because I taught him."

She tapped her foot before shrugging it off and kneeling beside Mako on his blanket, introducing him to the bottle. In between his little coughs, she spoke. "This is going to make your throat feel better sweetie." He watched curiously as she popped the top off and poured a small bit into a silver spoon. He already felt bad for his son, Mako doesn't know how horrid these liquids are, even if they're advertised as delicious and fruit flavored. "Okay, open up~" He opened wide and Sasuke watched with squinted, interested eyes.

He closed his mouth around the silver spoon and swished it around his mouth and swallowed it whole. He stared off into nothing for a moment before his big green eyes widened largely and his mouth puckered, tears brimming. "Mommy, no!" He whimpered like a little puppy and already Sakura was a mess. She hated making either one of their children upset by her own hand, and knowingly at that.

"Sweetheart, it's going to make you feel better!" She pulled him into a crushing hug and placed many kisses on the top of his head before leaving the room.

Mako wiped away his tears with the backs of his hands and stared at his father. "Grooooosssssssss...!"

Sasuke sighed at the sight of his son crying at just a taste of bad medicine. He fished the small wrapped candy from his pocket and plopped it in front of him. "Just take it."

...

Later on in the day Mako's condition grew worse. His nose was constantly running, his coughs were suppressed but that didn't stop Mako from pretending to cough, his sneezes were quite frequent, and he had a sever loss of energy. Now he just lay on his side beside his toys, watching his father work. Occasionally Sasuke would feel the need to look over to make sure Mako wasn't dead but then he would hear a few pained sniffles coming from his direction and he knew he was fine.

Off in the distance he could hear the voice of Naruto in his home, asking Sakura of his whereabouts, then giving her his thanks. A whirlwind of footsteps echoed through the hall and the blonde appeared before him with a curious face. "What're you doing in here?" He shifted his glance to the tot who only then smiled at his 'uncles' appearance. "Mako!"

"Careful, he's sick." Sasuke warned as he finished up his last sentence on one of the pages and watched as Naruto ignored him and dove onto the floor, dangling a toy in front of Mako's face. "Why are you here?"

"I need to go to Suna tomorrow evening, and I need you to come with me." He begged with big blue eyes. "I know you told me no more big missions, and Sakura told me that too, but I don't trust anybody on the team as much as you! Someone could be going after me and I need my two best guards!"

"I don't care - it's Sakura you're going to have to convince, and she hasn't been in the best mood for the passed few days."

"O-oh... Can you help me try and convince her?"

"No." Sasuke gathered up his papers, tapped their bottoms against the floor to organize them, and held them out for him. "These are yours to file."

Naruto swiped them and stood up, crossing his arms over his chest. "But then it's going to be virtually impossible to get her to say yes and you know that!"

"Then find somebody else for your team."

"What team? What are you two bickering about?" She appeared in the doorway with a smiley little Asami, grimacing at the sight of the blonde man that always tickled her. She raised a brow as the two men stayed quiet, Sasuke suddenly interested in the wiggly little Mako.

"Well, you see Sakura, I need Sasuke for about five days. Eep!" He took a few steps back when she pursed her lips into a threatening thin line, her eyes turning dark with anger.

"So.. You're saying you want him for five days.. Five days of me having to take care of two toddlers?"

"Eh, can't you get your mom or Ino or someone to come here for a five day sleepover or something?! There's a lot of day cares too!"

"I'm not putting my children into day cares, Naruto!"

Naruto dropped to his knees and began to beg at her feet, whining and whimpering in the process. "Pleaaasseee Sakura! Pleeeeeeaaaaaaassseeee-"

"Fine, take him." Sakura withdrew her foot from under Naruto's palms and paraded down the hallway with her nose high in the air.

Naruto looked over his shoulder with a devilish grin. "Hey, it wasn't that hard! Hehe!"

For Naruto her mood didn't seem that bad, but Sasuke knew her better, and knew he was the one that was going to have to deal with the aftermath of their agreement when Naruto left.

When night time rolled around, Mako passed out on the floor beside Sasuke as he was reading beside the crib. With a sigh, he folded his book and heaved Mako up and right into the crib. He tucked him in and made sure his old raggedy cat was beside him for if he woke up in the night, he wouldn't start hollering like a banshee. He felt a tad intimidated. Everything but Mako's bedroom was Sakura's territory, and he knew she was lurking about with that mad aura surrounding her. He manned up and picked up his mornings tea mug from the table and silently left the bedroom, making sure the area was clear before proceeding down the hall to get to the kitchen.

It was eerily silent in the house. In the distance he could hear Asami's mobile music droning and the sounds of the wind hitting the panels of the house, but as for her footsteps, nothing. He continued to the kitchen where her presence was absent. In the sink he could see her dinner plate was waiting to be washed. Since she was in a bad mood and he was feeling like a shitty person, he quickly finished up the dishes before slowly making his way toward his bedroom, hoping she had already gone to bed. He opened the bedroom door and to his surprise, was as empty as the rest of the rooms. He shook it off and made his way to the en suite where he could finally have his shower.

He cautiously stepped out of the shower when he was finished, toweled himself dry, then changed into his night wear. Opening up the bathroom door, he peered back into the bedroom right as she paced into the room from the hallway. He took a step in, closing the door behind him, and stood in the middle of their room, just waiting for it with crossed arms, as if they'd protect him from her wrath. He waited until she changed into her pajamas, and that's when she finally acknowledged him. She stood in front of him with a blank expression that turned bad.

Her mouth twisted from a thin line to an upset expression, her brows furrowed, and little tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. "I'm.. Exhausted... Every bone, and every muscle in my body.. Aches." All of her words came in between her sniffles and little draws for air. "I w-was literally on my feet all day running a-after Asami... A-and I'm just so tired! We barely even get t-to have this alone t-time And I w-want you to g-go tomorrow, I really d-do!"

"I _don't have_ to go, Sakura."

"Y-yeah..." She sniffled and wiped away her tears "But I want you t-to go..."

He swallowed thickly, not knowing what to do with her in this fragile state but anything could set her off, and that's opposite of what he wanted. "Do you want to go to bed? Go to sleep?"

"Y-yes.." She let out a puff of air as she smoothed out the fabric of her tank top and watched as Sasuke got into bed first. She seemed to lighten up a little because she knew Sasuke absolutely hated 'spooning' but it was one of her favorite way to cuddle, so when she saw him get in bed first, she smiled and dove in.

Why did he hate spooning? The minute she got all snuggled in the list of reasons was already present. It was an inevitable face full of hair and every time he breathed in he felt like sneezing. He'd always wake up with a completely dead arm that he was convinced would never wake up, and when it did it felt like pins and needles poking him everywhere. On top of that, it would take him at least two hours to fall asleep! He was scared that any move or flinch he made would wake her up so he stayed as still as a board until he passed out.

He closed his eyes as he listened to her sigh contently as she sniffled and that's when he felt it. He slowly opened his eyes and squinted. "Sakura.." He whispered. "Did you only shave one of your legs?" What an odd feeling, one smooth leg and one not so smooth leg...

She burst out into a mess of tears again. "I k-know...! I-I'm s-sorry..!"

Trying to be comforting, he gently rubbed her side with his hand as he hushed her quietly. "Shh. I was just wondering."

Despite absolutely hating spooning, if it made her happily fall asleep, he'd do it ten times over.

* * *

_So I got a message near the end of Surrogacy asking me to put this scene in and I haven' found a place for it, so here it is! If it sounds familiar, it's because it's from Grey's Anatomy! Season 4x06. It's an amazing show! Spooning is a funny thing. A lot of girls love spooning but I had to share a bed with a few friends , one of them a guy, and he naturally falls asleep spooning, so I had to fall asleep like that. It was terrible. So I feel with Sasuke on this one._

_NEXT CHAPTER WILL HAVE A FAMILIAR RED HEAD! BEWARE! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	14. Chapter 14

_Handful_

_-chapter 14-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

Before accepting Naruto's proposal, Sasuke made sure Sakura was one hundred percent fine with him leaving for at least five days. She reassured him multiple times that her mother would be taking one of the guest bedrooms down the hall to help her keep Mako and Asami in check, and that no, she was not angry with him.

Feeling not so assured, he shook it off and bid his farewell to his family before leaving out the door to meet up with Naruto. When they met up, Naruto finalized with two other anbu members of their departure, and they began to make their way toward the gate. "So's, Sakura gonna be alright? She always is but yenno, two kids and all."

"She has her mother with her." Could Naruto somehow see his expression underneath his anbu mask? Truth be told he wished he hadn't accepted the mission. When it was just Mako he hadn't felt much remorse for leaving for days on end to protect the village, but now that Asami was here and Sakura was stressing out, he wasn't sure how long she'd last. Ever since Asami came he was only sent for interrogation, recon, and torture missions that only lasted about a day.. But a multiple day mission? He never thought he'd be this worried about their safety in his life.

"That's cool." Naruto confided in Sakura that he and Hinata had chosen to wait before finally choosing to have their first child, much to Naruto's protests. Sasuke noticed that whenever he felt shitty about having to leave his family behind, Naruto could see it and instantly feel like crap. Naruto's lips puckered out. "As much as I'd like to see Gaara, I wish I didn't have to go...!"

Sasuke shrugged. Since he returned to Konoha he'd acted like a recluse and saw nobody outside of the village - meaning he hadn't been in the same vicinity as Gaara since the Five Kage Summit, which did not end well. He could handle Gaara, but he was just _waiting_ for Naruto to tell him that he needed him to be his body guard for the next whenever-the-hell Kage meeting because he knew that was just going to turn out _so well_. Despite the fact that the Kage's that he had attacked on that day either died or took their leave, he was not reputed to be a good guest to such an occasion and wondered if he would be aloud back at all.

As Naruto began talking to both the Anbu captain that was also assigned to his side and to him as well, Sasuke knew this was to be a long trip.

...

About a day later, the sandy hidden village known as Suna was in view, almost invisible against the vast desert surrounding it. Naruto pointed it out with a grimace on his face and tears pouring down his face. He'd neglected the use of a mask even though with winds this strong it was highly recommended, so once he walked out into the barren wasteland, his eyes clogged with sand. Sasuke and the captain were fine; however, because their anbu masks designs had little slits as openings for their eyes and as much as the captain told Naruto to get something to shield his eyes, Sasuke still found it funny.

They paced through the sand quickly as the sun beat down on their backs, the heat burning them down to their cores. Once they reached the front opening to the village, a welcoming party had greeted them with open arms and led them inside the village that was thankfully shielded from the intense winds. "Eh, I'm kind of hungry..." Naruto gripped his stomach with both of his hands and looked at the two anbu guiltily. "Do you think I could get away with getting lunch before the meeting?"

"We're already late Lord Hokage, we shouldn't keep them waiting any further." The captain began, his words fading away when a woman from the welcoming party shuffled over.

"Yes - Lord Gaara is waiting for you at the manse, he's anxiously awaiting your arrival..!"

"Aw, dammit!"

And so, they began to make their way to the Kazekage's manse located at the very end of the village, much to Naruto's frustration. As they paced along the main street, Naruto would stop for a moment or so to take a big whiff of the wafting smells from the local cuisine and proceeded to complain about Konoha lacking in these specific foods.

A little ways down the street, Naruto stopped immediately, causing Sasuke to crash right into his back. "What's your problem? We're not even near a restaurant!"

"No no, not the food!" Naruto waved him off and darted up a few steps, his cloak covering what exactly he was running to but when his legs stopped and his white cloak settled into it's resting position, both men could see what it was he had stopped for, but only Sasuke understood why.

He would have stayed with his feet planted in the street but as Naruto's sworn body guard, and as his Captain immediately followed after, he knew he too had to follow suit and walk up those steps. He stopped behind Naruto as he greeted her and crossed his arms over his chest. He thanked his lucky stars he had his mask over his face but as she glanced at him, he knew she knew who he was. He cursed Naruto over and over again in his head for stopping because Naruto _knew_ this would end badly.

"I haven't seen you in so long!" Naruto gushed with a broad grin as he too crossed his arms over his chest. "You said you'd keep contact but you didn't."

When she tore her eyes away from Sasuke, she looked back at Naruto. "I know, I've just been really busy." She said as she surprisingly heaved up a child into her arms, leaving a very _very_ surprised Sasuke. He normally wouldn't have cared that she moved on and what not because in the end that's what he wanted and expected of her, but that child was almost the same age as Mako.. His brows furrowed behind his mask, thoroughly confused. She smirked and coddled the little child that blinked its big hazel eyes at the blonde man before him who ruffled his vibrant red hair.

"Yeah, I can see that. Uzumaki haaaaiiiiir, even though it didn't actually come from an Uzumaki. Hey! I've never even met your husband!"

As they finished catching up and making plans for the next day, they began walking back down the street again, Naruto casually looking over at Sasuke over his shoulder. "I would have told you earlier but I didn't think you'd care."

"I don't, I'm just surprised.." And fully confused.

"Want me to give you the scoop, or no?"

"Well I'd like to know why she has a kid that's half the age of Mako."

"Okay, well she went off to Suna with that friend once her friend was relieved from duty, came back here, and she said it wasn't out of revenge, but she met this guy... He's lowborn so his last name is, _ehhh_, so they immediately married and got a surrogate, had a kid which took the Uzumaki name! Katsu Uzuuumakii!" He cheered loudly to himself. "It means victory."

Sasuke only rolled his eyes and stayed quiet until they reached the manse where Gaara came out to greet the trio with open arms.

Gaara and Naruto stared at each other almost sternly before breaking out the smiles and giving the other a friendly hug. Gaara looked at the Captain in his white cloak clad first, giving him a curt nod before turning his attention toward Sasuke, sharing an awkward eye contact. "Sasuke." He greeted with another curt nod before stepping aside to walk with Naruto into the manse.

They made their way upstairs into a boardroom and left their friendly selves at the door, beginning to talk strategy and plans to the other as the guards stood on the outskirts. Sasuke couldn't stop thinking about it. It was just too weird that their children were so close to being the same age. Knowing Karin and her sneaky ways he could only guess she did it to bide her time or as a big old _fuck you_. Either way it gave him some comfort knowing she settled down in a village that was not his own. Now does he tell Sakura what he saw, or no? It wasn't like it was endangering their lives or anything but it was an interesting tidbit of information that would make a good opener to a conversation.

When the meetings were finished and plans were set in stone, the three man squad returned back home to the land of fire. He slipped in through the front door, unsure of if Sakura had put the kids down to go to bed yet or if they all were awake - but better safe than sorry. He removed his mask and quietly laid his bag down in front of the door, looking around curiously before pacing up the stairs. The doors were closed, which meant that they were either out of the house (unlikely) or they were already in bed.

He silently wrapped his hand around the doorknob to Asami's room and peeked inside. A blanket was drawn over the front gate so he walked over quietly and smiled when he saw her little chest rising and falling with each breath she took in her deep slumber. He hadn't been away from his little girl for more than a day so it was safe to say he missed her dearly. Carefully, he leaned over and placed a kiss atop her head and reset the motionless mobile, knowing how upset she could get over that thing not spinning when she woke up in the night.

He silently opened the door to Mako's room and rolled his eyes when his son was standing in his crib like usual with his pacifier stuck in his mouth. He looked like he had been sleep-walking but he noticed Mako smiled a tiny bit behind the plastic toy, so he held up a finger to his mouth to let him know to stay quiet. He shut the door to Mako's room and walked a few steps over to his and Sakura's shared bedroom. Just as silently as he opened the others' rooms, he peeked inside to see Sakura sleeping away soundly, all cuddled up in the blankets. After her spiel almost a week ago about how tired she was, he decided against going further into the room, and carefully closed the door.

Since Mebuki had been staying with Sakura and most likely took the only guest bedroom that was equip with sheets, his only option was to sleep on the dreaded couch. He slowly made his way down, got himself some water, and climbed onto the couch, finding it hard to find any comfortable spots on this damned thing, and began to regret his decision to not sleep in his big luxurious seeming bed. Still, he laid there in bed with angrily pursed lips, wishing he hadn't forgotten to get at least a blanket from the spare closet but even then, without a blanket he still passed out only minutes after laying down.

"Sasuke!" A hushed whisper filled his ears and immediately his eyes were spinning red, sitting up faster than he even woke up. The sense of danger had been heightened since he wasn't sharing the room with Sakura and wouldn't know if somebody had broken through the bedroom window, but that sense of fright leaked away when he noticed it was only Sakura who had awoken him. His spinning red eyes had dissolved back into blackness when his heart rate began to slow down, rubbing his blood-drained face. Her calming, reassuring guilty chuckle filled the air as she leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. "Sorry - I know I shouldn't do that... But why are you sleeping on the couch?"

He looked toward the window and noticed that the sky was still pitch black. "Why are you awa-" It was only then he noticed Asami in her arms, staring at him with a half curious look on her face. He reached over and stole Asami from her arms and sat her on his own lap, looking back at Sakura. "You were sleeping, I didn't want to wake you." He looked back down to Asami. "Why are _you_ awake?"

"Daddy, water!" She touched her mouth and pouted. "Pwease!"

"Well you're obviously tired too, you should have just came in." She wrapped her arms around his neck and gazed down at Asami. "They were going insane without you." He smirked. "I'm serious, no more leaving for multiple days until they can handle it."

"I can't imagine what they'll be like when you leave to get back to work."

She laughed heartily, gave him a kiss, and stole Asami back into her arms. "I'm going to go get her some water, go to bed."

Following her instructions, he went back up to their bedroom and finally got changed out of his anbu attire. He tossed it all to the side and got into his much more comfy night wear, and happily crawled into his large, welcoming bed. It got better when she finally returned back to the room and crawled into bed alongside him, cuddling right up to his side with a smile on her face. "So, how was the mission? Have to protect Naruto from someone?" She laughed at the mental image of Naruto needing protection from his greatest rival as snuggled her husband some more before finally laying still. "And what about Gaara? How is he?"

He shrugged. "Nobody attacked Naruto, and I didn't care to ask Gaara."

"Well you don't need to ask somebody, you can just see if they're doing good."

"I heard he'd gotten married, if that's what you wanted to know."

"Oh wow!" She sighed dreamily. "I wonder what kind of girl she is!"

Again, he shrugged.

"What else? There must have been more that happened than just that!"

"I saw Karin."

She gasped and sat up, her mouth wide open with shock. "What happened!?" She dove back in and laid on his chest, her big green eyes staring intently into his own.

"Nothing happened. She got married, hired a surrogate, and had a kid."

"Um." She started with a droning tone. "That _is_ something. Did she say anything to you? What about her new husband?"

"I didn't see him. Naruto told me he was born to a woman that was not _with_ his father and didn't carry a big name, so Karin married him and their child is an Uzumaki. I never thought anybody else existed with hair that red." _As if the world needed more of those. _"And she didn't say anything to me."

"Wow! What about the kid, what did it look like?"

"It looked about a year old."

"What? That's weird!"

Sasuke nodded and continued. "It had his red hair and brownish eyes. That's all there is to it."

"Hmmm, that's really weird. If it's around a year old that must have been quite quick after she left the village. Do you think she married a guy without a big name and had red hair on purpose?" He nodded. "This is good then, she's moved on and officially out of our hair then."

"Hn. I still find it weird."

"Pff, she had a kid, who cares what she's up to. And you call me the worry wart." She laughed heartily as she leaned in and gave him a big kiss. He would have told her to take this idle threat seriously but he supposed what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

* * *

_Omg you guys took the Karin thing way too seriously, hehe! I'm not fully introducing her yet because of reasons. _

_So the other day I went shopping with my mom and we had to get my friend a birthday present. It was a thirty dollar hat my brother really wanted to get for him so we went and bought it along with some clothes I wanted. We went to the food court, ate, and went outside so my mom could smoke a cig. I then realize... "I forgot the bags!" So I race back inside and begin running up the escalator then my foot misses the edge of the step and I trip down, effectively scraping my knee against the hard metal of the escalator edge, which had the jaggedy teeth (just fyi since some escalators don't have the teeth.) I totally shred my knee apart, ruining my jeans, bleeding everywhere like crazy, but thankfully I got the bags back then off to the hospital. Like it was literally a chunk out of my knee. _

_I'm totally stupid, right? The old ladies on the escalator bitched me out as well. _

_As always, thanks so much for the reviews! I hope I didn't disappoint with much Karin drama, but this'll just introduce some things coming up! _

_EDIT: it's not Gaara! I love him too much to do that to him lol! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	15. Chapter 15

_Handful_

_-chapter 15-_

_rated for language / **adult themes**_

_possible manga / anime spoilers_

* * *

Around six months later, an attack was planned for Konoha.

That morning, Sakura won a really heated argument with Sasuke over the fact that she wanted to go back to the hospital to work part time shifts. He argued old, non-valid points. His old argument was that Asami was pretty much dependent on her for food, yet six months later was the six month anniversary of Asami going on to baby mush and cereal. His usual other point was that she was pregnant and there was no way in hell he was letting her work in that condition. Seeing as how she wasn't pregnant and the kids weren't dependent on her for their basic needs, she made the better argument. She stared at him sweetly as she pulled her sandals onto her feet. "If you need me, you know where I'll be. I have my hospital office and front desk number in the kitchen~!" She giggled cutely and blew him a kiss before leaving through the front door.

"Where's she go?" Mako twisted his head around to stare at his father with a quizzical expression. At three years old, he was a dead ringer for his father. From about when his hair began to grow in when he was around half a year old, Sakura and Sasuke could already tell it was growing into the famous '_duck butt_' as Sakura called it. Even looking at Sasuke's old family photo, she said that by the time Mako was around eight he was going to look exactly like him. "And when's she coming back?"

"She's going back to work." He told him with a sigh. Mako was never going to stop with the questions. "She'll be back in maybe eight hours."

"Eight..." Mako began as he held out his hands in front of his face, raising and lowering different fingers to get try and get eight. Mako could correctly count to three, and remembered the numbers from one to nine, but had not remembered their correct order.

"Two less than all of your fingers."

"Okay.." Mako nodded to himself, holding up every finger of his. "Two.." He put down on finger, nodded, then put down another finger. "Eight!?" He looked up at his father for a reaffirming nod and once he got it, he smiled quite gingerly. "Yes!" He threw his hands up into the air and cheered happily.

Asami screeched happily along with her brother, not really understanding their conversation, but at least she could screech. She waddled over beside her brother and sat her rump down, looking at both her dad and brother.

"She works?" Mako questioned after he quit his celebrating, his face returning to it's popular quizzical expression. "What kind of work?"

"She's a doctor." Oh how he hated the waves of questions he always got. Asami, not understanding what they were talking about, shook it off, got up, pounced over to the couch and crawled up on it to sit beside her father.

"What does a doctor do?"

"She gives people medicine."

Both of the children's face screwed up in pretend agony. Both have fallen sick at one point or another and despised the taste of the cough medicine Sakura tricked them into trying. "So she's a bad doctor?"

"No, she's a good doctor."

"Evil doctor!" He joked with a string of giggles that followed, looking over at his baby sister who laughed maniacally, thrashing about dramatically. Mako gathered up his toys and jumped up on the couch to sit on the other side of his daddy. "Mommy's an evil doctor!"

"She's not an evil doctor." Sasuke buried his face in his hands for a moment before sighing. He just knew they were going to yell at Sakura when she got home, saying she was an evil doctor, then blame it on him. He just _knew_ it. "So stop saying it."

"Daddy, she is." Asami finally piped up innocently, curling her tiny arms around her stuffed animal and cuddled into the couch cushion, batting her big emerald eyes at him. "She give bad medicine."

"But it made you feel better, didn't it?"

"NO! It tastes so bad! It made me feel badder!" Mako twisted his mouth up the exact way he did when he got the bad medicine.

"Worse."

"Badder!"

"Are you two hungry?" Sasuke droned, standing up suddenly from the couch and looking down at the two on the couch. "What do you want to eat?"

Mako pressed a little finger to his mouth in thought. "I think maybe sandwiches." Asami vigorously nodded.

"Alright. Keep playing." He told them sternly as he left the living room and toward the kitchen to make them what they wanted so they could shut up for just a little while. He hated making them lunch, especially sandwiches, because it was tedious having to make sure every single little bit of crust was off their bread, and it was even more tedious having to mix formula with whole cow milk to get Asami used to the milk of a cow. He had to make their sandwiches specific to what they liked and made sure there wasn't anything they didn't like, and once the crusts were cut off, their lunch was done.

He called them over and waited until both were at his feet before helping Mako up onto the dining room chair and placing Asami in her high chair, setting their plastic plates in front of them. He smirked when Asami went straight for her sippy-cup of milk because it had the lowest possible dosage of formula, and she'd never notice it. So much for '_hating cow milk_.' Mako devoured his sandwich almost immediately, ate his veggies quickly and thankfully without choking, chugged down his milk, and demanded to be put out so he could go play outside.

"Wait for your sister to finish." He told him as he helped him back down to the floor, where he immediately darted off somewhere.

Asami took her sweet time to eat. She carefully ate her sandwich, blissfully and silently enjoyed her veggies, and drank her milk slowly. "All done!" She announced proudly as she showed him her clean plate and cup, happily clapping when Sasuke removed them from in front of her and stuck them into the sink. "Outside?" She asked once she was let out of her high chair, to which Sasuke nodded. "Yay! Mako!"

When Sasuke finally found Mako in the corner of the living room, he ushered them out through the back door and into the fenced off yard, both immediately darting off into different directions. Sasuke remained sitting on the steps that led from the porch to the yard, watching them carefully, making sure they weren't to go and get themselves stuck in a bush somewhere when he heard it.

Off in the distance he heard an explosion, not from any produced explosive, but perhaps a heavy impact? His ears perked and his eyes darted to the sound way off the distance. He didn't see any commotion in the air, no smoke, no dust rising, but a second later, what looked to be a swarm of bugs came from the south and toward the north. Upon further inspection; however, he realized that these were not bugs, but rather a swarm of people. Intel had said there were plans to attack Konoha but not in these drastic numbers! Quickly, he darted to his feet and scooped up both of his children. _I have to find Sakura_. He didn't want to bring them any further into the city but he knew the hospital would be a safe haven, and seeing as how Sakura was currently there, he'd have to leave these two there.

Soaring quickly through the scared city, he was stopped by a fellow anbu member. "Specific orders from Lord Hokage that Sakura be free to heal the injuries!" He pursed his lips and nodded. He'd just have to find Sakura's mother, he knew she'd take care of them. Again, he darted off through the streets only to run into Sakura on his way to his in-laws.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her with a puzzled expression as she gathered the children from his arms. She was still clad in her white lab coat and her short pink hair was still tied back. "Naruto wanted you to be on the field healing."

"I can't. Where were you taking them? To my parents house?" She kissed both of the tops of their heads as they were too scared to greet their mother, Asami burying his face into her coat as she did so.

He nodded hurriedly, his eyes panning over to a commotion down the street. He wanted them out of here and quick. "Why can't you? They probably need you there, or else Naruto wouldn't have asked."

"I just _can't_!" She groaned as he looked at her with a serious yet stoic expression. She shook her head with a long sigh. He wouldn't let her leave until she came clean with him. "I've got a _bun_ in the _oven_. I've got to go!"

He looked at her with a puzzled expression as she was gone in a flash. He didn't remember the oven being on at all while he was in the kitchen but then again he didn't even check.. He didn't understand what she just said but the commotion grew louder and closer, so he too was off in an instant to help aid the battle.

"Hey, Sasuke!" A familiar blonde voice pierced his ear drum as he finished off a few rogue sound members, looking over his shoulder to face the Hokage who was in the midst of a heated battle. "Where's Sakura!?"

When one of the nin wasn't looking, Sasuke drew his sword and ended his battle short as Naruto finished off the other, only to be bombarded by a few more. "She said she can't be here."

"Why?" Came his voice through the thicket of bodies, only his white cloak could be seen darting every which way, the sound of kunai's and swords clashing filling their ears. "Gotta watch the kids?"

"Well, no. She said she has a_ bun_ in the _oven_." He replied coolly as he precisely dodged a few attacks from three nins, cutting through them like butter when they weren't expecting it.

"WHAT?! Really?! That's awesome!" Naruto cheered happily as he blew two more off the rooftops and sent them to the earth five stories beneath them, turning around just in time to block a kunai attack from behind.

Still, he didn't understand. He continued to fight, darting everywhere around the city until most were defeated or taken hostage. "Uchiha, we'll need your interrogation skills later. We need these ones talking, since this wasn't predicated in the intel. We're thinking these were rogue rogue's from the main group, but we'll only find that out later."

He nodded, sheathing his sword back into its scabbard. When Naruto coolly approached the group of Konoha nin, he made sure everybody was alright before approaching Sasuke. "Can you believe they attacked in a number like this?! This was the worst in a long time. Remember that one time, when Sakura was first pregnant, the explosions? Thank GOD that didn't happen today!"

"Mm..." Sasuke trailed off as he soon remembered the _bun_ in the _oven_. He was too prideful to ask Naruto what the hell it meant, so he hauled ass and got over to the interrogation department. It was a long process he hated going through. Not that he hated the interrogation itself, but the booking process. They were to be named and cataloged, healed and checked up on by a psychologist, then it was his job to escort him to an empty cell, sit him down, and begin asking him simple questions. Bring up the intel that was either faked or changed, scare him into talking and if that didn't work, seriously scare him. Naruto said he didn't want to allow brutal torture like tradition called for, but if it meant safety for his village, then they were allowed to resort to physical scaring.

They had eleven captured rogue nins to interrogate, so his shift carried on through to the wee hours of the morning until one of them finally piped up in the midst of their crying. He told them they scattered from the original rogue team, hungry or a fight, disobeying their higher ranking officers and leaving in the night. He stated that the group would continue to attack until the village was eradicated for the wronging of Orochimaru. Most of them were subordinates that had fallen under the Stockholm syndrome and refused to think otherwise. Sasuke tried to inform them that during the Fourth War Orochimaru had substantially helped Konoha but they refused to believe it, ending the night there by walking out of the cell and heaving the heavy metal door closed.

"This last one isn't talking. Keep him in that chair until tomorrow morning and we'll see how much he wants to stay silent then." He announced to the team waiting outside as he briskly walked passed them, knowing his job here was done. He signed out at the log station before stepping outside into the nippy night time air, squinting around to take a glance at the damage. There wasn't any apparent damage. Some roofs to buildings were roughed up a bit, some neon signs that normally hung on the side of businesses were crooked or knocked off, but no crumbed buildings or deaths on their side. As far as an attack from a rogue group went, this was pretty pathetic.

When he opened the door back to his home, he was already greeted by the sound of a wailing little girl. He locked the door behind him as he began to half-worriedly make his way up the stairs. In the back of his mind he was always worried for his children's lives. After he had betrayed Orochimaru by killing him for the first time, he was made Sounds number one enemy and if there was a large number of Orochimaru loyalists still out there for Konoha's head, that meant him and his family was in danger.

He burst through Asami's door in fear that one sound nin had strayed away from the main group and found his house, but all he found was Sakura shushing Asami as she sat on the wooden rocking chair in the corner of the room, rubbing circles into her back. "Oh, finally you're here. She's been crying non stop!" Sakura got up to her feet slowly and placed Asami into her fathers arms, her wails immediately ceasing.

"Why?" He cuddled Asami close as she tried to stop her incessant sniffling. "Why were you crying."

"B-b-becus.." She whimpered painfully then found it useless to try and talk, so she just buried her face away and continued to sniffle.

"I think she was worried about you. All the commotion got her riled up." As she explained, she wrapped her arms around Sasuke and her little girl and laid her head against his chest. "She hasn't gotten a wink of sleep."

"What about Mako?"

She laughed against his chest, listening to the rhythmic beat of his heart. "He passed out once I put him to bed."

He smirked. That was indeed Mako's style. He knew his daddy could take care of himself. Carefully, he pried Asami away and walked over to her crib. "Are you going to go to bed now?" He hated a cranky Asami attitude in the mornings. "I'm home now, so you can sleep."

When placed in her crib, she began to flail her limbs around and cry loudly. "No daddy, no! Plees!" She reached up and made grabby hands at him, and just the sight of those tiny tears gathering in the corners of her big green eyes, he knew he couldn't leave her in such a state. He placed his hands beneath her arms and hauled her up back against his chest, where she immediately buried her face into the crook of his neck.

Sakura stared at him with a smile. "I told you she was going to have you wrapped around her little pinky~"

"I'm not - she'll cry through the night!"

"Whenever Mako would cry for hours straight you insisted we leave him alone so he could get over it by himself." She informed him as she paced toward the door. "Is she going to be sleeping in our bed then?"

He didn't think she had him wrapped around her little pinky finger, but he supposed he was a tiny bit more lenient with her than with Mako. He nodded to Sakura who merely laughed at the predicament and paced into their bedroom with Sasuke and Asami in tow. He carefully placed Asami down in the middle of their bed and got changed into his PJ's, turning just in time to see Sakura crawl into bed and wrap her arm around the drowsy Asami, who still had big wet eyes.

As he climbed in, Asami let out a whimpery, hurt sigh as she cuddled in between both of her parents, her eyelids slowly falling shut. "I'm surprised her voice didn't go out sooner." Sakura confessed tiredly as she found her perfection position, gluing her eyes onto Sasuke's profile, studying him. "So... What do you think?"

"Think of what?" He turned his head slightly and squinted at her, unsure of what she meant. Then it hit him. "I don't know what a _bun_ in the _oven_ is, even Naruto knew what it meant!"

"Sasuke, you don't know what that means?" He shook his head, slightly embarrassed looking, having to admit Naruto knew something he didn't. She laughed heartily and reached over to lovingly stroke his arm. "It's an idiom. It means that I've got a baby cookin', you know?"

He lay there, turning from confused to fully shocked. He wished it was a real, _bread bun_, in the real_ appliance oven_. "You're pregnant..? Again?" She nodded and cuddled into the bed, waiting for a response. She blinked as he blinked, his expression was blank, white as a piece of paper, his lips pressed into a thin line.

"Aren't you happy?"

Silence ensued for a little while until Sasuke groaned slightly."They're so much work." He wiped his face with a sigh. It was a time like this where he was jealous of other couples that used protection, but he ultimately knew that any child was a great blessing. "...But I am happy." Although he said it, any other person would say he looked quite angry about this revelation. But Sakura knew him better.

With a giggle, she leaned forward and gave him a great big kiss on the cheek sweetly, before returning back into her cocoon of blankets. "They _are_ a lot of work but some people can raise children all on their own, I know we can do this! And I was speaking to this old woman, and she gave me a friendly reminder that Uchiha families were oftentimes large, a lot with five kids or more!"

He scoffed. "Because some families liked to show off their wealth by having as many kids as they could." It made him more thankful that his mother and father stopped after two. "I hope you're not taking notes from what that old bat told you."

"Hey, I'm not the conservative one here." She replied, carefully kissing Asami's cheek as she wrapped her left arm around the girls figure. "Plus, you shouldn't have a big gap between the kids' ages or they'll start the big kids versus the little ones."

Sasuke huffed silently. To think that Naruto knew this before he did!

...

The next morning Sasuke had left to resume his interrogation with the prisoner that refused to talk, leaving Sakura with the children at home. She was currently curled up in bed joking around with Asami when Mako showed his face with his arm holding onto his stuffed cat. "Mama!" He cheered happily and bounced over to the large bed and hoped up, taking a seat on his fathers empty side of the bed. "You're an evil doctor!"

She fake gasped, shaking her head at her son playfully. "Who told you that?!"

Mako put his finger to his mouth to bring up an answer. "Uhh... Daddy did!" He looked to the sleepy Asami for back up, to which she lazily nodded and doe underneath the blankets. "You give bad medicine."

"It tastes bad but it makes you feel better." She told him sternly as she pulled the blanket off her body, stretching her limbs out lazily before pacing into the bathroom. "I'll be right back." She closed the door behind her and bit her lips nervously. Earlier on in the morning, right after Sasuke had left, she felt a little bit of a trickle down below. Normally during a pregnancy a little bit of blood spotting was normal, so she shook it off and said that was it, but now she could feel the flow getting a tad heavier and her back began to ache. Nervously, she pulled her panties down just a tad to see that it was indeed not light spotting but almost like a menstrual flow.

She changed her underwear quickly and paced back into the bedroom, beginning to get changed. "Do you two want to hang out with grandma today?" She questioned, peering over her shoulder. "I'm going to work today."

"Working as an evil doctor!" Mako continued to cutely wrestle his stuffed animal as Asami snoozed underneath the duvet. "Evil evil eviilllll..."

When she was finished changing, she scooped Asami up and ushered Mako into his room. First she paced into Asami's room to get her changed, apologizing as she sat her down on the floor so she could rummage through the drawers. "What do you want to wear today? A dress?" Asami lazily nodded as she flumped onto her belly and threw some toys around. "Okay..." Sakura picked a few things and begun to change Asami, making her look all cute in her frilly, obviously Ino bought, dress. She carefully pulled her long silky black hair into two pigtails, kissed the top of her head, and made her way over to Mako's bedroom. "Okay!" She clapped her hands together, standing in front of the boy. "What do you want to wear today?"

He peered out the window for a brief moment before looking back at her. "It's cold out!"

"Okay, I'll dress you in something warm.." She had him dressed in a few minutes and heaved the two over to the shared bathroom. "Now it's time to brush your teeth!" They began to wail and kick their limbs around. "No arguing! Your teeth have to be healthy, and this toothpaste tastes good!" It took her eleven minutes to get their teeth brushed properly, despite having her hair pulled and a few accidental punches to the face. "Breakfast time!" Again, she ushered them to the kitchen, strapped them into their proper seats, and made them what they desired for breakfast.

As they inhaled their food, she turned her back to them for a few moments to pick up the home phone and dial up her mom. "Hey mom, how are you? Yes, we're all fine. Nothing happened to us or the house from yesterday. Oh really? That's a shame. The clean up crew will have that fixed. Mmhm. Well Sasuke's needed for interrogation today and I'm scheduled to work today so I was wondering if... Yes, okay. I'll see you soon. Buh-bye!"

Mebuki arrived happily in a rush, gathering up her two grandchildren in her arms and smothering them in kisses. "How are my grandbabies today? Wasn't yesterday so scary?!"

Asami wailed dramatically, burying her face into her hands. "So scary!" She chimed, and just the memory of it all made her queasy and nervous.

"Big explosions everywhere!" Mako interjected with a big grin on his face, holding one toy in each hand and smashing them into each other. "Daddy went to fight."

"Oh did he now? How exhilarating!"

"Asami wouldn't stop crying until he returned halfway through the night." Sakura commented as she bit into a juicy red apple she grabbed from the crisper, leaning against the counter. "It was cute how worried she was about him. She ended up having to sleep in our bed." She glanced up at the clock over the archway and quickly finished the rest of her apple. "Anyways, I've gotta be on my way."

"Okay sweetie, we'll see you later~!" Mebuki called as Sakura placed a kiss on each of her children's heads before scurrying out of the door. She was to take the uttermost caution getting to work. She didn't know when Sasuke would be finished the interrogation and if he knew she was going to work whilst pregnant he'd have a fit. She hurriedly rushed through the streets, eyes darting every which way, on high alert for any glimpses of Sasuke. She was almost in the clear with the hospital in sight, when a hand latched onto her upper arm.

"S-Sasuke, it's not what it looks like - oh, h-hey Naruto!" Her furiously beating hear began to calm down once she realized it was only the blonde who had noticed her presence in the streets, grimacing at her innocently. "What's up? I've got to go to work." Still, just because it was Naruto who had caught her doesn't mean that Sasuke wasn't lurking around.

"Working? While pregnant? Sasuke would be soo angry!" He burst out into a fit of laughter and engulfed her into a hug. "Another niece or nephew! Yesss!"

"Yeah.." She trailed off nervously and peered back at the hospital. "Naruto, I've really got to go, I'll catch up with you later, okay?"

After she finally got away from his ecstatic congratulations and another hug, she hurriedly skid through the front doors to the hospital, making eye contact with Haru. "Haru, can you see if my favorite obstetrician is busy right now?"

"Whaaa?" She was thoroughly confused but seeing how serious Sakura was scared her into not asking questions and getting that phone into her hand immediately. Quickly, she dialed the number of the specific department and greeted their secretary, asking when the doctor was going to be free and if he had any spare time at the moment. Nodding, she clicked the phone into its socket and peered over her desk nervously at the obviously stressed out woman. "He's finishing up with a patient right now, so maybe ten-ish minutes.."

"Alright." She paced right passed the desk and whirled to the side when she approached her office doors. Pushing her way through she charged to the back where her lab coat was hanging neatly, pulling it on, straightening it out, and tying her hair back. She tapped her fingers against her desk and when the clocks ticking became too much to bear, she darted out of the room and toward the obstetricians department. She stood outside of his room until a woman left with tears of joy pouring from her eyes and an enthralled husband by her side, kissing her cheek happily.

She hoped she'd be that lucky.

When he exited his room, his eyes laid upon Sakura and he raised a brow. "Hey Sakura, why're you here?" He questioned her as he looked from his clipboard and to her briefly.

"I was wondering if I could have a few minutes with you. I know how busy you are, I just need a check up."

"A check up, hmm? Does that mean you're pregnant again?" He smiled heartily when she nodded to his words, placing his clipboard beneath his arm. "Congratulations Sakura!"

"Well, I.. I think there's something wrong.. With my two other pregnancies I got the usual normal light spotting but.. This isn't normal.."

His brows twitched and furrowed for a moment, quickly ushering her into the room. "We'll get you started on an ultrasound. How much bleeding is there exactly? A little more than spotting or?"

"Like menstrual flow." She shakily sighed as she laid down on the grey pleather chair in the middle of the room as he rolled over the machine to her left side, immediately hooking up all the wires and pressing the large red button to turn it on. "A-and my back is aching.." As he picked up the small bottle of ooey blue gel, Sakura pulled her shirt up just below her bra, allowing him to drop a blob of the stuff onto her flat stomach.

He placed the small, cold transducer against her skin and began to gently roll the thing around to smear the jelly everywhere, reading mixed pictures on the screen before them. She refused to look at the screen. She wanted to be told what was going on in her uterus, rather than seeing an image and thinking the worse, even though her doctorly instincts could differentiate one problem from another. She stared at the poster clad wall before her, reading about pregnancy health and newborn baby care.

"Now, was your pregnancy confirmed by a doctor or was it confirmed by a home pregnancy test?"

"Both." She stated, gripping the sides of the chair, her nails digging into the cheap fabric. "First the HPT then I was scheduled with the other obstetrician because your day was filled."

"Ah." He licked his lips as he studied the monitor, reading every single little bit of detail it screamed at him. "And with your previous appointment, did you see the embryo or fetus? How far along were you?"

"Y-yes I did see it... I t-think maybe reaching the end of the second month."

"Well from what I see here, Sakura.. Your uterus is completely empty." He continued to roll the transducer around and still found nothing to look at.

Shocked, she twisted her head around to look at the screen. Completely opposite as before, _nothing_. "But it was there... Just the other day..." She shocked out, her eyes widening as she stared at him for an answer. "How could this h-happen..?"

"It could be a number of reasons. What about yesterday, during the attack, where were you when it happened. Were you here or at home with your family?"

"I w-was here, at w-work."

"Were you stressed out? Adding the fact that you were away from your children, not knowing if they were safe or not."

"Y-yes, I was incredibly stressed out.. They came from the direction of the h-house, I didn't know if they were under attack or n-not!"

He nodded silently, jotting a few things down on a fresh sheet of paper on his clipboard. "Well I can't verify for sure what caused this spontaneous abortion, but it seems your body simply reabsorbed the fetus and your uterus is expelling the excess tissue that was leftover."

"Oh God..." She shook her head gently and buried her face into her hands, partly because of the embarrassment she felt at the moment, and partly because she didn't want anybody to see her with this agonized look on her face. She wept. She wept silently on the outside but on the inside it was full of noise. Her body produced two healthy babies, but it had failed her.. For some unknown reason it had decided that this child shouldn't stick around. She thought maybe it was for the better - a lot of spontaneous abortions were oftentimes because there was something wrong with the fetus and had to get it out of the system. _But why_, she asked herself, _why did it have to be my baby_? She furiously wiped her tears away awkwardly as he handed her a washcloth to wipe away the jelly from her abdomen, turning back to the machine to flick the switch off. "S-sorry.."

"It's fine, take your time." He said softly as he pushed the machine against the back wall. "If you'd like I can give you some privacy."

She gave him a half-nod and continued to wipe her tears on her sleeve, waiting until he left the room to let them flow freely. She never thought she'd be part of the statistics. Hell, she never imagined herself losing a child after perfectly having two babies, especially if the cause was thought to be of stress. She always thought she was great at handling stress, and the stress she felt yesterday during the attack was nothing compared to some of the past events she'd been through. Her baby died today.

She shook her head in disbelief. _What are they going to say_? The only two that knew about this early pregnancy were Naruto and Sasuke.. She felt a horrified jolt tremor through her body. _What is Sasuke going to say_? She rubbed her arms as the room got chillier than it originally was. She inhaled a deep breath of cold hair and stood up, smoothing out her clothing articles out of habit, wiped the last few stray tears away from her face, and briskly left the room.

...

That evening, after she put the children to sleep, she crawled into an empty bed with her sullenly empty uterus. She wrapped herself in all of the sheets and thick blankets and lay there, as still as she could, staring out of the window and into the pitch black darkness that covered the sky. She was emotionally unstable at this point, not sure whether she should be completely and uncontrollably angry like part of her felt, or still craving isolation so she could just go cry in a corner by herself. Whatever it was, she was feeling both. So she locked herself in this bed to stare at the unchanging sky to sulk on her own.

Well, she would have liked to be alone, until the bedroom door opened, sending a crack of the hallway light beaming down onto the empty bed space beside her. She didn't turn to greet him because eventually, he would come over. She licked her lips as she watched him change out of his uniform and into more comfortable clothing, turning around and glancing at her with an unsure expression. "I didn't know you were awake." He whispered in a hushed tone as if if his was any higher it would wake the kids. He crawled into bed beside her and stared at her, cocking his head slightly. "What's wrong with you? Are you tired."

She gently shook her head, cuddling into the bed as Sasuke lifted the blanket to get inside its warmth. He turned to his side in order to face her, staring at her intently, waiting for her to tell him what was wrong. He hated being left in the dark, and when she was this upset he only wanted to make her feel better. Unfortunately for him, nothing he could say or do would cheer her up.

"Are you going to tell me?" He questioned her with a serious tone, his onyx eyes burning into her expressionless green ones. "You're going to tell me."

She drew in a breath and sighed slowly, her eyes half-lidded now. "..Do you remember that.. _Bun_ in the _oven_..?" He slowly nodded, something changing in his expression. She knew he knew what was coming. "..Well.. That bun burned and shriveled away.."

His brows slightly furrowed. He tore his eyes away from her own, depressing eyes and stared into the fabric of the blanket. "The.. Baby is gone?" His left brow arched slightly and when she gave him an affirming nod, he closed his eyes. "But it was only yesterday you told me."

"And it was only today I learned that the baby no longer exists." She rubbed her face when it began to tingle - her signal for tears wanting to approach. "Sasuke.. I'm so sorry." Sakura knew their marriage wasn't based off of how many heirs and heiress' she could produce for the nearly extinct clan, but their children and the family centered ethics was the most important things in their lives. Even though this child didn't get a fair chance at life it didn't mean that they loved it any less than their other children. She wouldn't have apologized if it weren't for the inner feeling that it was all her fault her body evacuated this child.

"It's not like you did it on purpose." He stated dryly as he stared up at the ceiling, and for once, she couldn't read his expression. Maybe because she wasn't in a very good state to determine her own state of mind let alone someone else's.

"Maybe if I didn't go to work yesterday I wouldn't have-"

"Sakura." He said calmly, turning his gaze back to his face, squinting at her for a moment, watching her every move and every breath she took. "There's nothing we can do about it now. What are the causes of a miscarriage?"

"U-um.. Infection.. Radiation or toxic agents, hormonal problems, uterine problems, incompetent cervix.. Immune system disorders, uncontrolled diabetes, smoking, drugs, alcohol, malnutrition, certain prescription drugs, a problem with the chromosomes.."

"Most of those you can't help. So don't blame it on yourself, there was no way of knowing." She could tell that was the end of that, yet somehow his few words always managed to make her feel better. "If there was something wrong with the baby and your body knew it then it was meant to be this way."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just scared it will happen again. What if my uterus becomes hostile? What if that was the reason this baby died? Ugh!" She stuffed her face into the warm skin of his upper arm, gripping his forearm tightly, her nails poking at his skin. "I wanted this baby so bad."

"You still have two babies to take care of, and it's not like this will be your last pregnancy."

She batted her eyelashes through her tears, smiling daintily at him. "That's good to hear, then.." She continued batting her eyelashes until he looked at her again with a stoic expression. "Can we.. Cuddle? It'll make me feel better." Spooning to her meant being incredibly comfortable and gave her a feeling of being safe in his large arms. In a time like this, she could really use that feeling. She knew she was going to get her way this time, how could he say no to her right now? That's right. He couldn't. She turned around to assume her favorite cuddling position and felt complete when he wrapped his arms around her.

Though nothing could compare to a loss of a child, she knew having Sasuke by her side would help her get through it.

* * *

_Cliche ending, amiright? That was one big heap of a chapter, I'm really sorry if it was agonizing to read it because I know for shizzle it was dragging on and on. But I had to put this in because what SasuSaku fanfic doesn't have a miscarriage, right? Plus it thickens plot lines so whatever. Hope you're happy with it. PS. KARIN ISN'T MARRIED TO GAARA. Oh my God when I saw the first review I was like oh wow, I think that's a pretty spiffy way of viewing that! Then the second review I was like oh man I must have written something wrong. I apologize, I didn't even notice I basically set up the KarinxGaara thing, I DIDN'T MEAN TO. I love Gaara and setting him up with Karin would be the ultimate betrayal. _

_Again, sorry for any OOC._

_So I scraped up my knee pretty bad right? It's fine, no stitches, no big deal. But I've had my wisdom teeth hurting for about a year now and my dentist told me to wait until they were close to actually becoming a problem. Now I have to get three wisdom teeth surgically removed. ACK! _

_I love reading reviews with predictions, analysis', downright love, and I love you guys! With the whole Gaara / Karin thing it made me really appreciate how you guys pieced that together when I couldn't even do that... And it's my own story! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!_


	16. Chapter 16

_Handful_

_-chapter 16-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

"Mako is almost four." Sasuke began subtly. He could already see the dramatic roll of Sakura's eyes when he said is opening sentence. "He starts the academy at age five, and I don't want him going in knowing nothing."

She sighed as she continued folding her clothes, not even glancing over in his direction. "Actually, he's three and _a half,_ and I still think that's too young for him to start. He's still a baby! Plus, most academy students enter the academy without previous training."

They'd been having this exact argument every single day. It only started when Sasuke began to train Mako in the backyard and Sakura caught him and dragged both of them inside, lecturing the two. Sasuke insisted that nothing bad was going to happen and Sakura insisted it could wait until his first day at the academy. Sasuke then retorted with he was also Mako's parent, so he didn't need to have permission from her to train her son, she then replied with a nasty, scary glare in his direction. He stepped down. But ever since then, he'd been badgering her about it every possible second. He never thought he could be this annoying but when it was something he was passionate about he found it relatively easy.

"Yet when Asami is the same age as Mako you're most likely going to be teaching her the exact same things I'm going to teach him."

She let out another sigh. "Now I know how my parents felt sending me off. I just don't want them getting hurt."

"Sakura I'm not teaching him anything dangerous. Plus, he's bound to get hurt one day, worse than the regular scrapes and cuts he gets."

She continued to hurriedly fold her clothes and lay them in their appropriate piles. "I suppose you can start Mako off with something easy. Nothing above easy, please! I don't want him stressing out about it at this age."

"Stop worrying." He told her with a small smirk as he turned on his heel and disappeared to go and find their son. When she was still in the academy she would always bicker to friends about how much her mother nagged and worried about her being in the academy, but know she could connect with her mom and her past worries. Although both her and her mother are strong kunoichi's and know the academy is nothing dangerous, it was still unnerving knowing that their children were going to be put straight in the face of danger. Sasuke; however, was just counting down the days until Mako's first day of the academy without a worry, _after all_, he argued, _he'll only be five_.

She sorted through the drawers in her armoire and padded out of the room, loosely tying her short hair back as the Konoha heat continued to rise. She peeked into Asami's room and noticed it was empty, so she hummed to herself with a small smile and skipped down the stairs. She took some of the fabric of her shirt between her fingers and fanned her chest as she made her way into the kitchen. She noticed a few dishes in the sink waiting it be washed so she made her way over, and as she did, she could see the three outside in the sweltering heat.

Both Asami and Mako did not take well to the heat, Asami especially. She burst out into a fit of giggles when she laid her eyes on Asami, who had crawled underneath a large bush and collapsed, looking dead in the heat. She only watched her father and brother through a slight crack in her eyelid, then slowly, not giving a crap and closing her eyes completely.

As Sakura scrubbed the dishes, she'd occasionally glance upwards to make sure Mako was okay, which every time she'd look up he was fine. When the dishes were finished and were stuck into the drying rack, she subconsciously tapped her fingers against the counter top, carefully eyeing her son. One day they are going to send him off on his very first mission on his four man squad. One day he'll return from a mission and rushed to the hospital where one of the rules was that family cannot operate on family, so she and Sasuke would be stuck in the waiting room. Then there was the ever present possibility that one day he may not return from a mission, and she and Sasuke would be clad in black looking down at only an etched name in stone. She never thought she'd be this plagued by these thoughts but ever since Sasuke kept pestering her about preparing him for the _real world_, they were festering in her mind.

She made herself a cup of tea and sat at the bar stool in the kitchen, waiting until the three came in through the back door, Mako already hugging her legs. "Mommy it's sooooo hot out!" He announced as he groaned dramatically, gripping his shirt and peeling it off his chest. "Sooo hooootttttt!"

Sasuke appeared next with a floppy Asami in his arms, whining lazily. Her arms and legs were flailing about, her head drooping down so her eyes were on the opposite wall, her hair messily sticking everywhere. "Ehhhh ehh, I'm deeeaaaadd..." She whispered almost inaudibly, waiting for her parents to dot upon her but Sasuke merely set her down onto her feet on the thankfully cold tile, to which she threw herself down upon it's heavenly chillyness. "Daddy can I have some water please."

As he turned to grab her pink sippy cup, Sakura piped up. "Is he catching on?"

He shrugged as he twisted the cap on and knelt beside Asami to hand her the small cup of cold water, to which she outstretched her tiny arms and closed her mouth around the small opening, immediately chugging to down. "He wasn't paying attention half of the time, so no. I didn't expect much more though."

She chuckled lightly after she took a dainty little sip of her tea. "Yeah, he doesn't have a particularly long attention span. Maybe on a not-so-hot day he'll be a little more attentive."

"I doubt it. Next time I'll threaten that he'll be the worst in his year if he doesn't listen to me."

"Because Uchiha's can't stand not being the best." She rolled her eyes playfully as she took a slow sip from her cup. She remembered back to the 'good-old-days' when Sasuke would grow absolutely furious and crazed when there was the slightest chance that Naruto was stronger than him. It wasn't exactly a trait she wanted Mako to have but with Sasuke as his father it may just be a genetic thing. "And now you're going to reply with a, '_it's not that we can't stand not being the best, because we are_,' right?"

He smirked as he leaned against the doorway. "You know me so well."

She knew usually Sasuke would have come back with a witty response, but he'd been walking on eggshells around her since the miscarriage, not because he felt like it was his fault because it certainly wasn't, but because she'd been a little on the still emotional side. It'd been really hard for her to get over her immediate post-miscarriage depression so he tended to be a bit more lenient with his words around her. Sasuke didn't like to show his emotions around her, especially because he knew if she saw him acting in such a way she'd grow more upset. Despite this, it was incredibly easy to read his emotions and she could tell it impacted him almost as much as it did her. As a doctor Sakura dealt with her fair share of patients miscarriages, some people dealt with it in many different ways, ranging from religion to science. She could tell just how choked Sasuke was when she told him the news, but as always, he was just a teensy bit better at concealing his emotions, though doing that wasn't really her thing.

The one who reacted outwardly the most would be Naruto. She had to sit him down in their house, look him in the eyes with her soft, hurt eyes, and he already knew something bad had happened in her life. She informed him of her miscarriage and already he melted into a puddle of tears and depression. It seemed like he didn't understand the concept of a miscarriage because it was an absolutely terrifying thing that only seemed to happen in the tv shows that played on the tiny television in his office. She gave him a thorough explanation of the causes, and he seemed even more flabbergasted at the fact that the main cause of her miscarriage was probably the stress she underwent the day before. She reassured him and later on, he drug his feet out of the door.

She smirked right back at him with a shake of her head. "You know it."

...

Around a week later, Sakura began to wash the dishes and just so happened to look out the window to spot Sasuke outside with the children, trying to train Mako. By the looks of it, Sasuke had scared him enough to pay attention to every word he said and was tentatively looking up at with with big curious eyes. She chuckled heartily as looked back down to the porcelain plate she was cautiously holding as she scrubbed it down. She finished off the few more plates that were hidden underneath the soapy bubbles, began on the utensils, and laid them all to dry before she peeked out of the window once more to see a different story.

There those two were, Naruto and Sasuke, bickering about something with both Asami and Mako watching this argument intently. As she dried off her hands and furrowed her brows, she opened up the back door to the yard and looked at them inquisitively. "Hey, what are you guys up to...?"

When the two grown men stopped huffing and puffing at each other, they glanced over in Sakura's direction. "H-hey Sakura!" Naruto waved happily with his famous spirit lifting grin. "We were just talking about how to train Mako!"

"He's not your son, so you don't have a say in it." Sasuke retorted with a blank face, not even looking at Naruto. "If you want to train a kid then get a genin team or have your own kids."

"That's what I came here for...!"

Sakura's eyes widened. "Naruto... What does that mean..?"

"Welllll..." He grimaced sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Sakura immediately jumped up happily with a loud squeal, clapping her hands together as a sparkle glistened brightly in her eyes. He chuckled lightly, slightly embarrassed, showing off in his now pink tinted cheeks. "Yeah, it's what you think. We're gonna have a baby!"

"NARUTO!" Sakura threw herself at the blonde, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him to his almost death. "I can't believe it! It's been long enough! Heck, three-ish years?!"

"Yeah, hehe. I listened to your advice about getting more comfortable with my position as Hokage, so now I'm feeling totally ready! And she's feeling ready, so yeah!"

"Oh my goodness! Congratulationssss Narutttooooooo!" As she screamed as loudly as humanly possible, her hug just grew tighter and tighter, Naruto's face grew a deeper and deeper shade of purple, his blue eyes popping out dramatically.

"A-ack, S-Sakura, I c-can't breath!"

"Eh?! Ah, I'm sorry..!" She forced herself to take a step back, smiling at him with tinted red cheeks. "Anyways, how far along is she?"

"Hmm, I think like, a month or so." He stood proudly between Sasuke and Sakura, hands on his hip, Hokage cloak swaying in the wind. She already noted how amazingly fatherly he looked already, with his chest high and proud.

"Really, that's great news Naruto! I just can't believe it!"

"Eheh, yeah I know! Hinata said she wanted to talk to you about all of that stuff, too, since you're super smart."

"Of course!" Smiling sweetly and gently rubbed his arm reassuringly as his smile began to fade. "What is it?"

"Well, I didn't actually want to bring it up.. I don't want you to be upset with me."

Taken aback, she raised a singular eyebrow. "Why would I be upset? I'm ecstatic!"

"I was scared that you'd be upset. I learned last week and I waned to tell you right away!"

She smiled. Despite the trouble with her last pregnancy that did not end well, it would _never_ dampen her spirits for somebody else, especially Naruto, who had a frail soul when it came to things like this. "Never, Naruto. I'm as happy as ever for you!"

After a moment of silence, his eyes turned big and scared, like a child during a large thunderstorm. "As much as I'm excited... I'm so scared! I don't know anything about pregnancies and babies!"

"Oh!" A pretend yellow light bulb flashed above her head and her face brightened up, immediately turning around and dashing into the house, leaving Sasuke, Naruto, and the two toddlers in complete confusion. Around thirty seconds later she dashed back out with a wide grin and something clutched in her fingers. "Sasuke doesn't really need it anymore, so here. It pretty much tells you everything you need to know, from the size of the baby, to how Hinata's body will begin to change. It's a good read for a first time father."

"What? You can't give away my things!" Sasuke protested but was shut up by a daring sideways glance from Sakura.

"HAH! It's mine now, Sasuke!" Naruto cheered happily, teasing the Uchiha by dangling it in front of his face and sticking his tongue out. "Don't worry, if you're still too scared to be a dad without this book I'll return it when I'm done!" Naruto barked with a loud thundering laugh, leaving a menacing looking Sasuke. "Bahaha!"

Even though Naruto's maturity most of the time leveled to about the same as a twelve year old boy, Sakura was sure that he was going to make an absolute fantastic father.

* * *

_FINALLY RIGHT?! I know you guys wanted Hinata to get pregnant soon, so here it is! Plus, I just kind of wanted to say that of COURSE Sasuke was affected by the news of Sakura's miscarriage, but I think his reactions range from his surroundings. I imagined him as the one that made himself stay strong for her sake, blah blah blah, so I'm super sorry if it wasn't portrayed the way I wanted! _

_Okay, this chapter was super late but I have explanations! I was going job-hunting, one reason. That took up an entire day, running all over the city to give my resume everywhere. I had a dental consultation with a surgeon which left me super anxious for a day, then I had a family friends birthday party AND party for Canada day! **Happy belated Canada day** to all of my fellow Canadians and **happy Independence day to all of my USA buddies**! I have some goodish/baddish news. Next friday I'm having my surgery, getting all 4 teeth hacked out of there so that entire day I'm going to be out of commission. BUT. The next few days I have to stay inside, so I will have loads of time to lounge around and write! I'm just so full of bad health, right? Hehe. **Prayers and good thoughts** are welcome, because I'm absolutely terrified for this surgery! _

_THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS! I like to know that you guys are happy! I love you guys so much! _

_**SUBMIT your own name you'd like Naruto's child to be**! I'm tired of choosing names and I want to please you guys, so submit any name and I'll pick the best one/or I'll do a poll, depending on how I do the time skip! Plus, I'm curious, **how many of you are caught up in the manga**? I'd love to know so I don't horribly spoil things! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto_


	17. Chapter 17

_Handful_

_-chapter 17-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

Sakura's seemingly everlasting joy for her old team mate's approaching fatherhood dwindled away from a simple glance at a plastic stick. She relished the memories of her pregnancy with Asami ever since her miscarriage around seven months ago, tricking her heartbroken self into thinking that it would be the last time she'd ever be with child. With that mind set, she had dotted over Hinata's every pregnant need since Naruto was like a brother to her, telling herself that if she wasn't going to have another baby then it was her goal to help others. When Ino had announced her own pregnancy almost two weeks ago with Shikamaru, she had squealed with joy for her longest best female friend and rival, and dished out information for her worried mind while waving off the fact that the big green monster grew just a little bit bigger with each day that passed. But with all of that joy that was constantly pouring out her her system and with the information she tricked herself into believing, that being that she was somehow magically infertile, she failed to notice the cease of her monthly present from mother nature.

It was only when she was idling standing with both Ino and Haru in the foyer of the hospital with droopy eyelids and a tea in her hands, that Haru mentioned that their '_mensie cycle_' would be messed up now that Ino was _knocked up_. It struck a cord in her brain, as if her subconscious' stored away reminders that her period was missed hit her all at once. Her eyes widened as she just barely gulped down a swig of her lukewarm tea, almost choking it back up as she grew slightly embarrassed and dashed away from the two.

Hurriedly she skid down the hallway to face the locked storage room and fumbled around with her work key ring, throwing the ones she didn't need off to the side as she found the match with a yellow rubber topping to it. She stuffed the key into it's appropriate lock and pushed the large door open, revealing the darkened closet with slightly glimmering storage shelves stacked against the walls. "Oh God." She muttered to herself as she slammed her hand against the wall to her left and slid her hand up and down until she felt the switch poking against her fingers, immediately pushing it up to shine the florescent lights down upon her. She shuffled over to the right side of the room and stuck her hand into a translucent plastic box sitting upon the shelf, feeling around until her fingers wrapped themselves around a small box. "There it is..." She stuffed it into her pocket and sneakily stalked out of the room like she was never in there.

She had a surgery in about an hour and she knew she had to make this quick so she could begin to read and prepare for her patient. She lurked into the private, singular staff washroom and dropped her scrubs, fumbling around with the pregnancy test packaging until she had the stick placed firmly in her hands. When finished, she gently laid it upon the counter and waited on the opposite side of the room, anxiously gnawing at her fingernails. When that began to grow too nerve wracking, she tapped her nails against the tiled walls, then tapped her foot, then ran her fingers through her pink tresses until her mental timer rang it's loud and quite alarming noise through her brain.

Dragging her feet through the washroom, she begged herself not to look at the stick, reminding herself that whatever life was within her wouldn't last because her body would simply rid of it. She wasn't that type of person to ignore such a huge thing, so she swiped the stick from the counter and squinted at the small screen.

"No no no no no..." She groaned to herself as softly as she could as she dropped the plastic pregnancy test back onto the counter, burying her face into the palms of her hands, gently shaking her head as she did so. "I don't want to go through with this right now, I don't want to go through with it _at all_..." She retracted her hands from her face and stared at the mirror blankly, mentally preparing herself to go back out in the hospital and get to work. "I have patients to tend to, I need to get it together.." She picked up the test, wrapped it in toilet paper and tossed it into the small trash can before shuffling out of the room.

She unlocked her office and promptly sat down at her desk, her beige patient folder ready and waiting for her eyes. She flipped it open and began to scan the words, age, sex, medical conditions, allergies, previous treatment, all of it. With half a mind, she flipped through the sleek printed pages with her nimble fingers, scanning the inked on words carefully with her skilled memorizing techniques. She was completely engulfed by her work and when the clock struck the time, she was out of her office to greet her patient in the checkup room.

She happily greeted the woman and proceeded to give her the 'surgery talk,' and as she did that she handed her the appropriate hospital gowns for the procedure. For the next three and a half hours Sakura skillfully cut and removed small cancerous tumors littered throughout the woman's chest area, making sure by double checking multiple times, that every visible tumor was eradicated and plastic into the plastic bowl by her side.

Sakura sighed behind her surgical mask, placing the bloodied tools on the tray beside her and pulling down her mask, nodding to the nurses in the room. "I'll leave the suture's to you three." They nodded in affirmation and she promptly left the room to clean herself up.

She once again found herself in her office, staring at the opposite wall with a blank expression, not even her eyes wavering nor hinting at any emotion she was currently feeling. Although she knew it was completely ordinary for a woman to get pregnant after a failed pregnancy, something in the back of her mind kept convincing her otherwise, the motherly, overprotective part. She knew about Sasuke's strong emotions that plagued him after the loss of the child, so she calmly made the decision that she would endure through this next '_most-likely-miscarriage_' to save him the heart ache.

She decided she'd make an appointment for a weeks time.

...

She had made the appointment with her non-regular obstetrician, no she was already going into this appointment with slight apprehension. The young woman began to start up the ultrasound machine with a few buzzes and beeping as Sakura got comfortable in the reclined pleather chair, beginning to roll up her tank top to reveal her flat abdomen.

"So.. Sakura, can you tell me about your previous pregnancies?" The woman spoke softly as she squirt some jelly onto Sakura's abdomen, placing the tip of the transducer to her belly and began rubbing it around.

"My first pregnancy went fine.. My second pregnancy was fine, although my daughter was born at thirty six weeks.. Then my last pregnancy ended in a miscarriage."

"Hm, I sense a little bit of uneasiness?"

"Yeah.. I'm not sure if this pregnancy will end the same way."

"Well..." The woman began as she cocked her head at the screen, slowing the transducer until it was completely still on Sakura's skin. "By the looks of it, the embryo is completely fine!"

"Ah! Y-yeah? You're sure?" Sakura craned her neck to look at the screen and much to her surprise, there was the hardly visible little embryo, still present in her uterus. The slight twitch of a smile faded to an almost sour expression when she clearly remembered this is how it began _last time_. She licked her dry lips as she locked her eyes onto the sight of the blank wall. "So let's say a few weeks until our next appointment?"

The woman nodded gingerly with a large friendly smile, removing the cold transducer from her skin. "Yes, that sounds fair."

When she finished cleaning herself up she left the room.

When she arrived home she acted like nothing had ever happened, just like she had in the past week. She'd walk in, be bombarded by her children who should have either been in bed or napping, greet them happily and kiss their heads, usher them back upstairs to see a semi-guilty looking Sasuke who'd make up a lame excuse for them not being in their rooms, roll her eyes playfully and force the kids into their beds with a goodnight kiss. She made her way into her bedroom and as she changed Sasuke would ask her how her day was.

She replied with a, "Nothing out of the ordinary, how were the kids today?"

She knew he hated when she wouldn't go into detail. "_Nothing out of the ordinary_, brats like usual."

Sakura crawled into her side of the bed and curled up into a ball beneath the sheets, wrapping up the duvet around her figure. She was scared Sasuke would pick up on something. She was always so much more livelier, but with this nervousness and fear of miscarriage wracking her entire being it was hard to pay attention to his and the children's needs. Usually he never asked due to his prior knowledge of her wrath, but she knew if he ever did question it she'd blame it on something he'd fall for without further questioning.

She hated keeping something this large and important from him but she knew it was definitely for the better.

...

Around two weeks later on her way to the hospital and secret visit to the obstetrician, Sakura ran into the most nit-picking, curious, sleuth like person she knew. Ino waved her down from the side of the street with a big flashy smile on her face. Oh great.. Sakura sighed as she carefully rifled through the bodies in the crowded main street until she found her space beside Ino, who was standing outside of a small tea cafe.

"Ino!" The two girls greeted each other with a dainty little hug with big smiles. "How are you feeling?"

Ino rolled her eyes dramatically as she flit her fingers around. "Ehh, not so good. I feel like crap Sakura! I can't believe you've done this twice!"

"Yeah, well it's easy to get used to. If you'd like I can drop by later with some things from the hospital."

"Oh my God Sakura, that would be so amazing!" Ino looked as if Sakura was her saving angel and hugged her tightly and lovingly. "What time does your shift end?"

"Depends on what I'm scheduled for, but regularly six."

"Great!" Ino clapped happily, hugged her once more before letting her go. "I'll let you get to work, I'll see you later!"

As the obstetrician lathered on the cold jelly on Sakura's still flat abdomen, Sakura began her rant. "I'm only here to check if the pregnancy is still progressing at it's normal rate, not anything else."

"Okay." The woman flashed her a knowing smile and looked upon the monitor, beginning to scan the screen with her big brown eyes. "Just like last time, Sakura, everything seems fine!"

Once again, Sakura craned her neck over her shoulder and fixated her baffled green eyes on the screen. She was once again proved wrong. There was the tiny little embryo within her, existing, not gone. She pursed her lips together with a slight tinge of red embarrassment on her cheeks. "O-oh, okay.." When she was all cleaned up, she looked back at the woman. "I'll make another appointment."

The rest of her day she was running around the hospital on her breaks gathering whatever Ino would need for the future problems in her pregnancy. She had the different sized hot water bags, prenatal vitamins, list of nutrient high foods she should be eating, plus more junk Ino wouldn't be interested in but she should take. When she clocked out she went straight for Ino's place with her brown paper bag of goodies for her friend and when she appeared at Ino's door, she looked absolutely ecstatic.

"So I was going to say, I have THE worst morning sickness!" She announced as she stepped aside to let her friend into her apartment, dramatically putting the back of her hand to her forehead to add emphasis. "Do you have anything for that?!"

"Well..." The pinkette began as she took a seat on Ino's couch, beginning to rifle through her bag. "There's no actual medicine for morning sickness. I have a list of foods here that should stimulate thirst, drinking water and tea will make things so much easier for you." She placed a sheet of paper on the coffee table in front of the couch for Ino to read later.

"Is it normal that every morning I'm heaving everything up?! I'm not even exaggerating on the every morning thing!" She complained with that famous whiny tone of hers as she lounged on the couch beside Sakura, squinting at the paper she swiped off the table.

"Some people have it worse than others." She rummaged through her bag again and pulled out a few dark colored bottles. "Now it's recommended to take these vitamins, seriously Ino, they can help your baby in the long run." She placed them on the coffee table. "And I also brought you hot water bags for when you get aches, these pads you wear in your bra if you start lactating, ointment for stretch marks-"

"NO. I wont get stretchmarks Sakura, you're ridiculous!" Ino tittered nervously with her big, scared blue eyes. "Right?"

"Most women do, I'm sorry to say. Even I have stretchmarks."

"B-but.." Her eyes watered.

"Yes, that means if you don't use that ointment and help those stretchmarks, then you can't wear your exposing outfits." She laughed heartily. "I mean you can, but I doubt you'd want to."

"Aweh.."

"So like I said, just use this ointment at first sight and when they're itchy and hopefully it will make a difference."

"Oh Sakura, what would I do without you!? My own personal doctor that I don't have to pay for!" She engulfed her in a huge hug and snuggled her happily before picking up the small bottle of vitamin and began to study them. "How's Hinata's pregnancy going?"

"She's doing pretty good actually, nothing compared to your morning sickness. Though Naruto's been badgering her every waking moment so she's being well taken care of."

"Damn, lucky her. Shikamaru knows what's good for him so he's been out of the house as much as he can, what with these awful mood swings I get. Anything to help that?"

Sakura chuckled lightly, reclining back on the couch. "I'm afraid not. It's funny, Sasuke was the absolute same way when I had my mood swings. It gets so bad I think he's memorized when I get my period so he can book a week long mission."

"Oh God, men are funny."

The two girls continued to chit-chat until Sakura knew she better get home to put the children to bed.

...

Sakura had waited around a month to book her next appointment. "This has to be it.." She murmured to herself as she toweled her sopping wet hair off as she stepped out of the shower, staring into the mirror as she did so. She rubbed her face in the towels softness, dried her body off, and changed into her fresh clothes, still eyeing the mirror. "It's been a month.. This appointment is _it_.."

She had been mentally preparing herself for a while for this moment, and she was sure that this appointment was the one that would tell her that her little embryo did not survive. As the month had flew by she decided she was on the fence about telling Sasuke solely for the fact that if he somehow found out through medical files or someone running their mouth he'd never forgive her. Plus this child wasn't just hers to hide away, it was half his as well and he had just as much right to it has she did.

She shook it off and slowly blow dried her hair, earning the curious attention of her little babies, who flocked to the entrance of her bathroom and stared at her curiously. "Mommy what is that thing?!" Mako asked curious as he stepped into the bathroom, folding his arms behind his back, cocking his head at the machine in her hands. Asami soon followed suit after her brother, standing right behind him, poking her head out from the side to get a glimpse of it was well, raising a little brow at the thing.

"It's a hairdryer, see?" She proceeded to blow the hot air at her hair, making strands of pink fly around everywhere, Mako and Asami's faces lighting up instantly.

"I wanna see!" Asami piped up innocently and reached her little hands out, her big green eyes glistening happily when Sakura placed the machine in her hands. She giggled as she pointed it in Mako's face, sending his hair everywhere behind him, causing him to laugh uncontrollably and wave his hands around. She handed it to Mako who instantly pointed it in her face, blowing her little pigtails behind her as she laughed maniacally.

"Okay, Asami, I'm going out for a bit then I'm going to pick you up to see Auntie Hinata, okay?"

"What?! Mommy why can't I go with you?!"

"Because you're going to train with your father today Mako, you know that. Now give me a kiss." Sakura knelt beside Mako, gently grabbed both sides of his face with her hands, squished his cheeks and gave him a big kiss on the forehead. She ruffled his hair before standing back up. "And Asami, try not to get too dirty before I come back." It was partly that he was to train with Sasuke this afternoon, but also because with Mako's energy hitting new records, she didn't want Hinata to be frightened. Asami was much more toned down than him.

As she was closing the front door she could see the two immediately jump up on Sasuke's lap and begin to bug him, causing her to laugh. Since she'd been taking shifts at the hospital Sasuke had had more time to bond with the children and the more he did that, the more the children weren't dependent on just her. She smiled to herself as she left and as she progressed toward the hospital, the smile vanished.

She settled back into the pleather chair in the obstetricians blank room, staring off into the distance, waiting for her to enter. She read every poster within reading distance. She reread the miscarriage poster on the far right of the room with it's big colorful words and statistics, pie charts and graphs. It was one thing to read it but it was a completely different thing to experience it.

"Shall we begin?" The woman asked as she sat down on her stool, looking at Sakura with a sweet smile, tilting her head slightly. When Sakura nodded as a response, she returned to the machine that was situated in front of her, already beginning to push the necessary buttons to turn the thing on. "So we're almost nearing the end of the second month, am I right?"

"Yes."

"When your miscarriage had happened, it was around the end of the second month, right?"

"Yes, it was."

"Alright." She set down a glob of jelly once more and re-applied the transducer to the still-flat abdomen like she had done every other time Sakura visited, squinting at the monitor as she did so. It took her a few brief moment before glancing over at Sakura. "When this pregnancy passes the end of the second month, do you think you'll give up on calling it a soon-to-be miscarriage?"

"Well, it's month four that really affirms that the pregnancy will proceed according to plans, right? I think if it's not terminated by now I'll wait until then to pass judgement.."

"Well, here we have a still healthy embryo. And in a week we can officially call it a fetus!"

She didn't bother looking over her shoulder at the screen this time. "Okay.."

"Are you sure you don't want to take a peek, Sakura?" She nodded in affirmation.

"Alright, well, too many frequent ultrasound appointments shouldn't be that harmful, but let's schedule your next appointment for another month, maybe?"

"We can just wait until the four month mark, I think."

The woman just nodded and gave her a slight shrug. "Okay, I'll see you then."

She was actually quite surprised. She had a slight shred of hope that this child could make it but the darkness that was present after her first miscarriage loomed over her head and told her that last time it was the two month marker that she learned she lost her child. So in an instant that shred of hope slipped away and she was yet again tricking herself into thinking she wasn't going to have a baby in her arms.

She didn't tell Sasuke what was going on when she returned home to pick up Asami. He knew something was wrong with her, what with the looks he gives her, the side glances of unknowing, slightly worried looks. She knew the time was coming where he was going to hold her down until she told him. So she left the house quickly with Asami in her arms, who was slightly whining because she wanted to continue playing with Mako and the hairdryer. "Sweetie don't fret, you like Uncle Naruto and Auntie Hinata!"

"Yeh b-but.." She inhaled a very big amount of air and dramatically let it go, giving up on wanting to bring Mako along and decided to sight see on the way to the Hokage manse. She liked to scope out the other children that lived by, ever since Sasuke told both her and Mako that they may be team mates with them one day. Ever since she'd been silently judging and rating the other children she'd pass by. She was also quite the socialite among the children she'd stop by, not afraid in the least bit of putting herself out there to make friends. She was excited for when her best friends would have their children so they all could be friends.

Slowly, she wrapped her hand around the knob on the door and timidly took a step in, seeing Naruto lounging around in his chair with Hinata giggling at the sidelines. "Hey you two." She greeted with a large smile as she fully entered the room with a squirmy little Asami in her arms, watching as Naruto's eyes widened at the sight, jumping up frantically.

"Hey!" Naruto cheered happily as he bounded over, immediately stealing Asami away who was completely ridden with giggles. "I was wondering when you'd get here!" He sat his butt back down on his chair and did what he did best, completely disregard his work and play with Asami.

"Sorry, I had to check a few thing at the hospital before I came here." She explained as she took a seat in front of his desk, cross one leg over the other and readjusting her skirt. "Hey Hinata, how are you doing?"

"Hey Sakura." Hinata greeted warmly as she too took a seat in front of Naruto desk, slightly turning her chair to face both Naruto and Sakura. "I'm doing fine, a little bit of nausea in the mornings, nothing as bad as Ino though." She glanced over at Asami for a moment and the corners of her lips turned upwards, looking fondly at the little girl in Naruto's arms, looking as if she was imaging that child was their own.

"Soon enough, Hinata." Sakura chuckled lightly as she smiled. She had to admit, she was constantly imaging them as parents. She just couldn't wait! "You're almost at four months, right? Are you two going to keep the gender a surprise?"

"We've been debating that." Hinata chuckled lightly as she continued to proudly watch Naruto and Asami. "I think we will keep it a surprise."

"It's so fun keeping it as a surprise!" Sakura reminisced happily with her first odd pregnancy and the eagerness to learn the gender when Mako was born. "Do you have any names decided?"

"We're still undecided about that one Sakura, we just can't agree on anything!" Naruto pouted from behind Asami's fake punches to his face, pretending to have actually felt pain from her balled up little fist.

"If it's a boy, Naruto wanted to name him Neji and I suggested Minato. The hard part is we love each name and can't pick one! For a girl we are stuck between Kushina and Yoko."

"Oh those are great names!" She cooed gently as her mothering surged forward. "I love naming babies, but it is so hard to pick just one!"

"Hehe, that's why you have more than one kid, plus, you got to choose both of the names for Mako and Asami, so I don't see how it's so hard!"

"Well I don't want to choose a name that wouldn't suit an Uchiha, you know."

"Ah, did Sasuke not want to name the children?"

"He stated that he didn't want to choose a name when he wasn't face to face with the child. He has names but he's keeping them for the 'right' kid I suppose."

"Wow, those names are totally not obvious at all." Naruto droned on from behind his desk as he continued to playfully fight the toddler. "Not at all.. Ooowwwowoow, that hurt!"

"Either way it will be special when he does choose to name a baby."

"So does that mean you're planning for more children?" Hinata smiled daintily as she absentmindedly laid her hands upon her abdomen.

Sakura was surprised Naruto had not told her about her previous miscarriage, seeing as how Hinata probably wouldn't have brought that up if she did know. Out of the corner of her eye she witnessed Naruto flinch, ceasing all activity with Asami. "We'll see what happens." She gave him a small half glance along with a small wink, just to let him know that everything was fine.

...

"Sakura, this is it." Her obstetrician began as she entered the room with her clipboard clutched between her fingers, her big brown eyes rearing to go and her smile as flashy as ever. She paced over calmly to the stool beside Sakura's pleather chair, pursing her lips in an excited manner. "The four month mark. You promised me that this would be it. You still going to stay true to that?"

Sakura tittered nervously, rolling up her white tank top till they reached just underneath her bra. "I guess so, but it's been almost a month. Anything can happen."

"What about the usual spotting?"

"It's a tad more than usual."

"Well, we'll see in a matter of moments." The jelly was lathered onto her slightly swollen abdomen. _Who knows, that could just be the placenta_. She shivered underneath the jelly's coldness as it spread across her skin with the cold metal tip of the transducer. She sucked in a big breath of air. _This is it, the moment I've been preparing for for three months_. Of course she wanted nothing more than this child to be there, to be existing within her, to have a chance at life. Yet the unshakable feeling of emptiness still plagued her and her nightmares, taunting her, reminding her that her body had gotten rid of a life.

"You think that if I had a miscarriage, a second in a row, then there is something wrong with my body?"

"There's a possibility, yes." She continued to roll the transducer around, reading the monitor carefully. "Or your environment could be playing a key factor in it."

"Hm, I doubt that." Nervously, her shaking hand traced the shape of her lips as she stared down the posters on the wall, absentmindedly beginning to chew her nails in the process. "Body it is."

"Sakura..." The woman turned in her chair to face her with a serious face, not even a hint of emotion on any of her sharp features.

Her breath hitched in her throat. She didn't dare blink because it would lead to the eventual down poor of ugly tears and sobs, which she had been mentally teaching herself to control. In the heat of the moment she knew she couldn't stop the tears. Their stare down only lasted a few moments before the woman's heart shaped lips curled upwards and her perfectly straight and white teeth were showing.

"Everything is fine! Healthy as can be!"

"..." Her jaw dropped and her hands immediately found their way to her small swell that she had been neglecting to acknowledge. "There's a baby still in there...?"

"Yes! Look at the monitor!"

"N-no! I have to wait for my husband! I can't look without him!" Sakura gasped as she sat up with tears already streaking down her face, hands already covered in jelly. "I.. I'm gonna make an appointment soon, alright?"

"Of course Sakura, but are you sure you don't want to look at the monitor?"

"Mhm!" Quickly she cleaned herself off and made her way home as fast as she could, all the while trying to hide the evidence of her crying with the sleeve of her coat. "A baby..! Oh my goodness! It's still alive!" She was absolutely thrilled. No, not thrilled. The feeling of immense joy, unconditional love, anger at herself for ever neglecting to accept it's presence within her. She felt it was comparable to the feeling of when the war was finally ended. She had fought through the fourth shinobi war, but now she felt like she fought through another one. It was almost indescribable!

She just had to fight through one last battle. Telling Sasuke about the biggest secret she'd ever kept from him.

When she returned home she was fascinated by the simple revelation that Sasuke had _actually_ gotten the children to bed on time for their nap. She only knew this because when she entered she wasn't completely engulfed by hands and hugs. When she closed the front door as quietly as she could, she noticed Sasuke hearing her arrival and slightly turning in his desk chair to face her.

"You're home early. I thought you were working today."

She licked her dry lips. "Yeah, about that..." She paced into the living room and sat down on the couch nearest his desk, eyeing him as he eyed her, cautiously at that. _Can he see my tear stained cheeks_? He was no idiot, she knew that, and she knew by his facial expression that he could see her nerves and those blotchy cheeks that resembled the children's when they cried.

He was about to open his mouth to question what kind of day she had, but she quickly cut him off. "There's something I need to tell you."

* * *

_Another long chapter, woot woot! Opinions? _

_Okay, VOTING TIME! For Naruto and Hinata's first child, I've narrowed down the names! **From (Rose Adry)** Kushina and Minato are pretty self explanatory! I think Naruto would definitely want to name his children after his parents, because hey, his parents are awesome people, right?! For Neji, I wouldn't have even thought of it until somebody had suggested it, and the more I think about it, the more I love it! Neji meant something special to both Hinata and Naruto, and naming somebody after someone special (like Minato and Kushina) is the greatest honor! **From (Rosebunse) **I'm named after my grandmother who died ten days before I was born, she was fighting to stay alive to meet me but unfortunately, succumbed to her illness'. Yoko is a name I didn't even like until I got the definitions from the lovely **xXRosexScorpiusXx**. "It means foreign/ocean child or sunny child. Which fits Hinata and Naruto perfectly and therefore any child they have. Naruto has blue eyes, foreign roots and a sunny personality and don't forget his yellow hair." Now I really like that name based on that really great description!_

_OMG. Okay, so to tell you guys the truth, I do not ship Ino and Shikamaru, I was just going with the most popular ship I know of for Ino. I like her a ton better with Sai and Shikamaru a lot better with Temari. I just wanted to keep the fic clean of any wars, but if you guys really don't want Ino and Shika, I can simply edit this chapter and one a few back so it's Sai instead of Shikamaru! Just tell me! (happy face)_

_I love you guys, seriously! THREE MORE REVIEWS TILL 100! WOW! Here's a pre-thank you! **THANK YOU**! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!_


	18. Chapter 18

_Handful_

_-chapter 18-_

_rated for language / adult themes_

* * *

"There's something I need to tell you." She announced to Sasuke with a sheepish smile on her face, twiddling her fingers anxiously. The slight worry left his eyes and was replaced with pure suspicion. "Yeah, I know that a lot of bad stuff comes from when somebody says that they need to tell you something, but this isn't nearly as bad as you may think." Oh how she knew he'd be angry with her.

"You don't look like you meant that." He told her with rising suspicion levels, slightly furrowing his brow as he looked her over a few times, noticing nothing out of the ordinary. She'd been acting so aloof for a while, tittering about and out of the house a lot more than usual. He was concerned, yes, but he loathed when people would pry into his business so he took his own advice and left her alone, though his concern never dwindled. A few more moments later, she remained silent and his anxiety levels raised. "Well are you going to tell me?"

"Y-yeah." She drew in a deep breath and he could already tell it was going to be something big, usually she never faltered with her words when it was big news. "Well here goes nothing." He raised a singular brow. "I'm just going to be blunt about it - so I'm _actually_ pregnant, not like last time, I made sure of that because I waited almost four months to finally accept that I wasn't going to have a miscarriage again.. So, um, surprise!"

She smiled innocently as if she hadn't done something wrong, he guessed that's where Mako got it when he'd steal a sweet from the kitchen and pretended he didn't know where the wrapper came from. "So say you did end up having a miscarriage, when were you planning on telling me?"

"I knew I had to tell you about it eventually, but I didn't want to do it immediately."

He pressed his lips together and crossed his arms, contemplating what to say next. "You know we aren't children any more, where you'd keep everything to yourself." He had to admit, he was a tad upset she'd keep something this overly large all to herself. "Why weren't you going to tell me?"

"Because I thought maybe if I didn't tell you I'd save your feelings." At this moment he could read her like a book. She looked as if she knew how stupid that sounded, and began to try and rephrase it. "I thought it'd be better if I just kept it to myself this time, so I'd feel less at fault for causing all of these emotions.."

"So you were just going to deal with this all on your own?" He leaned back in his chair. He knew it certainly wasn't healthy to harbor strong feelings without somebody by your side to help you, in fact it was the only piece of advice he'd choose to tell people. She looked thoroughly guilty. "I recall something in our vows that said we wouldn't do just that."

She chuckled lightly as she rubbed her cheeks, still quite guilty looking. "I know, I know. I wasn't really thinking straight the entire time, even though my prior knowledge told me I shouldn't have been stressing that much. I thought you would have noticed the small bump I've got now."

"I wasn't going to say anything." He grimaced as she smiled with a roll of her eyes and crawled up onto his lap.

"Hehe, you know what's good for you then." She gave him a small timid kiss. "I'm sorry - but I made an appointment for us to see our little baby. I've been saving the moment for us."

...

When she lead Sasuke into the obstetricians room, she looked upon her doctor with this seemingly famous sheepish look on her face. "I'm here yet again, but for all the good reasons."

"Well that's refreshing." She joked heartily as she took her seat on the stool beside the bed. "We'll get you started." This time Sakura paid full attention to the monitor as the woman rolled the transducer around gently, and happily at that. "Sakura refused to look at the monitor after six weeks."

"Well I didn't want to look at it without him if it _were_ to live."

The woman hummed a tiny bit as she fetus was in full view for her, as Sakura's head was tilted to look over at Sasuke on the opposite side. "Well, here it is!" She announced happily as she focused the transducer on a specific spot on Sakura's abdomen emphasizing the view for the couple.

Sakura looked over her shoulder to glance at the monitor, her doctorly instincts taking over, making her squint at the monitor to analyze the situation. "Um." She pursed her lips together and her brows furrowed, immediately looking at her doctor. "Um?" She stuttered, heart fluttering about, hand gripping Sasuke's tightly.

He didn't know what the hell was going on, immediately worry filling his entire being. Nothing on the monitor looked out of the ordinary. He could clearly see a little baby in there! It took him a few moments more to finally realize just what Sakura had seen that put her in such a state. "Oh."

"Sakura you would have known if you looked at the monitor during your other appointments."

"I-I..! I didn't think..!" After gawking at the doctor, she returned to gawking at the monitor, tears already brimming at her cloudy green eyes.

"Plus, you're a lot larger at four months than a regular one baby pregnancy."

"I thought it was just the _after the first pregnancy you balloon out _kind of thing!"

"Hehe, nope!" She pointed to the monitor to give attention to specific things. "Baby A and Baby B! You can also clearly see their heartbeats, which are both normal."

He suppressed a groan. Not that he wasn't happy, but one baby was enough.. But now two? PLUS his other two rascals who's favorite hobbies were anything that annoyed him in the slightest? He honestly didn't know how he was going to do it! He thought he had it slightly better now that the two brats were old enough that he didn't have to constantly baby them every second...

"So we are at seventeen weeks, which means the genders should be visible. Surprise or no surprise?"

"Hmm.." Sakura hummed to herself and returned her view to Sasuke, smiling up at him sweetly with a gentle squeeze of his hand, her eyes sparkling. "Sasuke? Any input?"

_Two babies.. Twins_. "Might as well."

She chuckled and looked back at her doctor, giving her a slight nod. "Learning the gender it is!"

...

About a week after the appointment, Sakura had run into Naruto while grocery shopping. During the months where she was unsure about whether her pregnancy would result in a miscarriage, she had preferred to wear baggy-ish clothing to help hide the baby bump, so no one knew what was going on. Learning that both of her little babies were alive and well, she had decided to accentuate her beautiful baby bump, pridefully parading around the village.

He saw her, and was going to run right over to her, but noticed the.. larger proportions she had gained. He felt embarrassed because it looked as if she was pregnant but then he thought there was no way she wouldn't have told him by now, so he gulped and walked up to her as if he hadn't noticed. "H-hey Sakura!"

"Naruto! It's been a while!" She pulled him into a hug, weary of her overly large pregnant belly. When she withdrew she noticed the plain and obvious curiosity in his face. "Oh, you're looking at this?"

"A-ah! I'm sorry Sakura, I didn't mean to look!" He fumbled, completely embarrassed, stumbling back a few feet with a face as red as a radish. "Y-you have to believe me!"

"What?" She raised a brow and cocked her head, confused as ever. She took a moment more to try and understand what he meant before bursting out into a fit of giggles. "No Naruto! I didn't gain weight, I'm pregnant!"

"S-sorry - wait what?" He dead-panned, looking between her eyes and the prominent bulge. "You're WHAT!?"

"Pregnant, Naruto!"

"Like... Actually pregnant?"

"Yes, this pregnancy will last."

"YESSSSSSS!"

...

"AAAH! WE'RE GOING TO HAVE BABIES TOGETHER?!" A shriek louder than a newborn child rung through the house, Mako, Asami, and even Sakura wincing as they craned their necks to look up at Ino. The blonde dove onto the couch carefully and curled her arms around Asami, giving her a kiss on the top of her head. "I can't believe it!"

"Well that's not all, Ino.." Sakura smiled and began to pray that Ino's voice couldn't reach higher notes. "You're probably wondering why I'm so large right now, for this point in my pregnancy, that is.."

"No, I wasn't wondering, but tell me!" Her big blue eyes grew wider with growing curiosity, pulling Asami just a little closer.

"Turns out it's not just one baby, but two!"

"Oh, my, GOD!" She cheered loudly yet again with a tortured looking Asami in her arms, flailing her arms around to get out of that death trap but Ino's intense grip only strengthened around the small child. "TWINS!"

"Yes, Ino!"

"You're too strooong!" Asami continued to wrestle against Ino's overbearing arms, playfully trying to kick and squirm her way out of her auntie's arms, but her attempts were fruitless, as Ino only cuddled the young girl closer. "Waah!"

"Oh my God, that's soo amazing Sakura! They'll be in the same year, same with Naruto's kid! Who knows, they might even manage to be on the same teams!"

Upon seeing his little sister being (in his eyes) wrestled to death by this loud blonde monster, Mako hurriedly scrambled over onto the couch and playfully tried to pry her arms away from Asami, letting out a way cry as he did so.

"That would be pretty amazing if they did end up in the same team." Sakura smiled fondly as she could imagine all three couples children being in a team together. As long as one the twins were put into a team with Naruto's child, they would be reliving team seven all over again. Though as she imagined her past with team seven, she wasn't sure if that was a good idea.

...

Hinata was the first to go into labor. From Sakura's previous natural labors, Hinata decided she wanted to go down that route, at least with this first child, and if it turned out to be too much, then she'd ask for the help the hospital would provide her. All of Konoha eleven were present for the joyous occasion, happily chattering away in the waiting room, their favorite topic of discussion was the gender of the baby, still unknown to everyone.

"Where's Sasuke at today? I would think he would be here." Kakashi idly commented as he looked over at Sakura, who was currently standing between Rock Lee and her old Sensei.

"Naruto had actually requested he be on watch today. As much as he wanted Sasuke to be here, he knew it was the wiser decision to have him make sure the village was safe since he wasn't on duty."

"That sounds like Naruto."

"He's been awfully crazed the past month with Hinata being in such a vulnerable state. I fear for his future daughter."

"Mm, you know he hired an anbu to watch over both you and Hinata?"

She let out a sigh. "I noticed."

When the doctor took a step into the waiting room almost everybody flocked around her, throwing a plethora of questions about Hinata's current state and how the baby was, getting all up in her face. She cleared her throat and commanded that their voices be lowered in respect for the resting patients doors down.

She took in a small group, one after the other to pay their visits to Naruto and Hinata, and when they returned to the waiting room they returned with large sparkly grins and so much to say to each other. Sakura waited until she could go in and visit by herself, as she found that she would want this moment to be a bit more personal.

She took a small timid step into the delivery room, catching the attention of Naruto, who's still overly excited eyes bore into her own. "Hey." She whispered gently as she entered the room as quietly as she could, not wanting to bother Hinata who looked exhausted. Though as exhausted as she was, she slowly turned her head on her pillow, giving Sakura a sweet smile. "Hinata, you look amazing for a seventeen hour labor." Sakura took a seat beside Hinata's bed and comfortingly rubbed her friends arm.

"Thank you Sakura."

From the opposite side of the bed Naruto smiled fondly, proudly, joyously, as he switched his eyes from Hinata to the little bundle he held protectively in his arms. "Sakura, we had a boy." He whispered, much to her surprise, as she half-expected him to be running around with the little baby in his hands, showing him around the village. She was glad he calmed down for this occasion. "We decided to name him Neji."

The corners of her lips turned up into a large smile as Naruto stood up, rounded across the end of the bed and gently presented the small child to one of his bestest friends. "Oh wow.." She gently held the little boy in her arms and through her happy and proud tears, analyzed his tiny chubby face which was framed by the blankets he was swaddled in. "Look at his teeny little face."

"I know..! It's so weird, I know the feeling of love, but_ this_ is completely different.." He seemed thoroughly confused by this as he put his right hand over his heart, brows furrowing in the process."I don't know what it is."

"The love for your child is completely different than love for somebody else. It's so amazing."

"Yeah, it really is!"

...

Ino was the next to go into labor. She had personally requested that both Sakura and Haru be present in the delivery room to alleviate the mood, or to at least try. Ino, unlike Hinata and Sakura, insisted on taking every damned medicine the doctors recommended. So currently Ino was laying in her bed, a little drugged up as her obstetrician was assessing the situation.

"We're ready to go!"

"W-wait! I made Shikamaru go and get me some food, I can't start!"

"We'll give a few minutes, but no more, this baby wants to come out."

"Sakura?! Isn't there a way to keep the baby in for a little bit longer!?"

"Ten minutes ago you were whining about wanting the baby out sooner!" Haru barked playfully, smacking the cover of her pregnancy magazine that she was reviewing for '_future reference_.'

"There's no way to delay the baby, so he's got to be back in a few minutes."

When those few minutes came and went, the doctor returned to the room. "B-but he's still not here! Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have told him to find me a specific ice cream!" She daintily whined as she put the back of her hand to her forehead that was coated in a sheer sheet of sweat. "Fine, fine! I guess we'll have to do it!"

Sakura and Haru positioned themselves on opposite sides of Ino's delivery bed, their hand enclosing her own as the doctor brought in a few assistant nurses. "This all looks so intimidating!" Ino whined again as she looked up at Sakura with quivering lower lips and big scared blue eyes. "Why do they need so many people?"

"Well because the doctor needs some help, and there needs to be a nurse that will take the baby once it's born and clean it up! It's perfectly normal Ino, trust me!" She smiled sweetly at her friend and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Wouldn't you want as many people here to help you as you could get?"

"Y-yeah... You're right Sakura!" She beamed somewhat brightly as she looked back at the doctor. "I think I'm ready..!"

As the doctor repeatedly informed Ino to push at the correct times she would do exactly as they said because she informed them that the epidural was an amazing creation and she couldn't feel a thing except a little bit of pressure on her abdomen. However it did not lessen the pressure both Haru and Sakura received from Ino's immaculate grip they both weren't expecting.

"A-ah, Ino, I thought you couldn't feel anything?" Haru's lip quivered a teensy bit.

"That's right!"

"Then why are you gripping our hands so hard?"

"Oh, hehe, sorry guys! I'm just in the moment, though I wish Shikamaru wouldn't just hurry his ass up!" The doctor instructed her to give the next few pushes her all, saying that they just needed to pass the baby's shoulder in order to have this baby in her arms sooner. Ino gasped, eyes widening in the process. "I didn't even know the baby's head was out!"

"They told you earlier."

"Ah.. Like I said, it's hard to focus on more than one thing.." This time she knowingly gripped her best friends hands, drew in a long breath and let his eyelids flutter shut, imagining a different atmosphere before putting immense pressure down below in order to birth her baby. With her friends comments of support and her doctor smiling and nodding, she knew it was going right so she continued to push with all of her might, roughly gritting her teeth together. "I-is the baby out yet?" She had stuttered, cracking an eye open to get a glance of what was going on.

"Yep!" The doctor quickly raised her arms arms and in her arms was a crying little thing with red tinted skin and chubby little arms flailing about. "Congratulations, it's a boy!"

At that very moment the door swung open to reveal a very exhausted Shikamaru with a few paper bags clutched in his arms. He caught an eyefull of Ino's exposed private parts, partially covered by the doctor, who in her arms, held a wiggly newborn baby with a powerful set of lungs. His mouth fell slightly apart, brow twitching as he assessed the situation. "Ino!" He quickly and carefully set the bags down onto the tiled floor, kicked it away from where people would trip on it, and made his way to the doctor's side.

"You're just in time to cut his cord!"

He still seemed pretty dumbfounded that he had missed his first child's birth because someone had forced him out of the room to buy her some idiotic flavored ice cream, and it made Sakura laugh off in the distance. They gave him a small pair of shining silver scissors and he proudly cut the cord, still looking amazingly distraught for someone that was known to not care about too many things.

"Sorry Shikamaru, I know you wanted a girl first." Ino giggled with her raspy breath as she lovingly stared at both her son and husband, who let out a sigh and told Haru to 'scoot' so he could take a seat beside his wife. "And I knoow you wanted to be here.."

"If you hadn't made me go looking for that ice cream I would have been here."

"I really wanted it, though."

"Well apparently that specific flavor has been out of season for _three months_."

"Oh! Ahah, that's right!" She giggled as she wrapped her hand around his own. Their constant and routine bickering was a normal thing to the couple's friends, as Haru and Sakura did not try and get between their words; however, the doctor seemed a little bit irked. "Can I see my son now?"

The nurse that was busily preparing the little one turned from the counter with him in her arms, swaddled up in a fuzzy green blanket, only his tiny round face peeking out, letting out small frustrated puffs of air. "Here he is, as healthy as can be!" She smiled sweetly as she carefully placed the little on into his mothers awaiting arms, immediately being cuddled close to her chest.

"Ah! Look at that tiny face! He's so precious!" She cooed gently, as if all of these motherly instincts washed over her, her normally loud voice was now drained away into the peaceful voice they were all shocked to hear. She daintily touched his soft, petal pink cheeks with her index finger, earning a reaction that consisted of his little mouth twisting up and his eyes cracking open with another cute puff of air, fingers curling around the blankets as he glanced around with his blind eyes. "Look at that Shikamaru, he's got your eyes!" Indeed he did, though they differentiated in size. Shikamaru's were smaller, and somewhat beady; however with Ino's genetics in play, their little one large beautiful brown eyes. "And lookit! He's got my hair!" She gently pulled back the small baby beanie on her sons head to reveal his thick tufts of platinum blonde hair.

As the couple dotted over their newly born addition to their small family, Sakura wondered how long until she was going to pop.

...

Sakura was the last of their group of pregnant friends to go into labor. Even though on countless occasions she told Sasuke it was normal to go into early labor, he still looked at her with worry in his eyes. "Sasuke I'm fine, the contractions aren't even that bad. Plus it's two weeks away from their due date, that's amazing for twins!" She tried to reassure him but being forced out of the house told her he wasn't too keen on listening to her words.

She was ushered into the hospital and Haru, being the slight pregnancy worry wart she was, furthered the ushering until Sakura was into a delivery room. "Why are we in here?" Mako questioned as he climbed up on his mothers hospital bed, peering up at her with inquisitive eyes. "What's going on?"

"Sweetheart, I'm going to have the babies!" She rubbed her overly large pregnant belly to emphasize her point. "You've been waiting for them to come out, haven't you?"

"Y-yes!" His eyes widened. "I've been waiting and waiting and waiting!" He encircled his arms around his mothers protruding abdomen happily.

All the while, Asami was lulling her head from side to side tiredly, eyes half-lidded, bottom lip quivering for attention as she was sitting on her fathers lap. "H-how l-longg?" She whined dryly, not bothering to tilt her head up for an answer, just expecting one. "I-I-I'm tiired."

"Then go to sleep." Sasuke told her sternly. "Because this wont be short."

"Waah." She cried out with a tired voice before she immediately passed out.

The obstetrician walked in, wriggling her fingers into her plastic gloves as she shut the door behind her with her butt. "Hey Sakura!" She greeted with a big glimmering smile, pacing up towards Sakura's bed. "You know I expected you in here a lot sooner than this, but hey, this is amazing!"

"I know! They just wanted more time to develop, I suppose."

"Heh, that's what it seems like! Hello there Mako! Are you happy you're going to have some new siblings?"

"Yes!" He cheered loudly from his fathers other knee, careful not to accidentally smack Asami's sleeping face. "I want them here now!"

"Well, we'll see right now how they're doing okay little guy?" Mako profusely nodded happily, looking up to the blonde woman as if she was a God. As Sakura prepared herself for the examination, the doc continued to make idle chit chat. "Do you know where babies come from, Mako?"

"Magical stork." He replied simply. He still wasn't really catching up on the fact that they were inside of her mother and were going to come from his mother, because from what she had told him previously told him, she had to make a wish for the babies to come to them.

"Ah! I see they've already told you." She smiled cheerily as she retracted her hand and removed her gloves as Sakura covered herself back up. "Well, this is a surprise. You're almost ten centimeters dilated! Now, were you planning on cesarean or vaginal birth?'

"Ah! Good thing you rushed me to the hospital Sasuke, or you would have been delivering these babies!" She joked happily as joyous tears already brimmed at her eyes. "I'm going to try natural and if it can't be done we'll go down the c-section route."

"Okay! I'll go get the machines and hook you up to see what exactly is happening in there!"

When she left the room, Sakura carefully laid on her side to look upon her sons face. "Mako, do you want two baby brothers, two baby sisters, or one of both?!"

"Uhhmmm! I already have a baby sister, so I want at least one baby brother!"

"Hm.." She pressed her index finger to her lips and smiled. "Me and daddy know what we're going to have." She teased her son playfully as she turned in her bed once more to lay on her back.

"I can't WAIT!" He curled his hands into little fists and stared off into the distance, obviously off in a detailed daydream about his future new siblings. He was also under the impression that if his parents told him and Asami the gender of the babies then the stork wouldn't let them have them anymore. He only learned that after he and his sister wouldn't stop asking about what they would be.

Later on, Mebuki had swooped in and stole her grandchildren in order to give Sakura peace of mind without having the two little one's running around playing tag.

Much later on, as in seventeen hours, the first baby's head began to crown. She'd been offered multiple times medicine to help alleviate the pressure that was weighing down upon her abdomen, but every time she profusely shook her head. It even got to the point where Sasuke tried to convince her that it would be for the better, yet nothing wavered her opinion.

She gripped his hand as hard as she possibly could, nails digging into his skin, once again being crushed by her sheer power. She didn't mean to cause anybody any pain, but she needed something to ground her as she pushed harder than she ever thought was possible. It took a while before her doctor stood tall with a little baby in her arms. "It's a boy!" She cheered happily and carefully motioned for Sasuke to do the ceremonial cord cutting. When he snipped it the cord, his eyes flashed down to his newborn son was was crying like nothing he'd ever heard before, chest rising and falling with exasperated breaths. He smirked proudly at the sight.

"S-Sasuke, don't look down there!" Sakura''s face reddened more than before as she quickly covered her parts, shielding herself from his eyes.

At first he was started from the sudden and quick outburst, then took a brief moment to process what she had just said, and rolled his eyes. "I _wasn't_ looking there."

"O-okay.." She smiled sheepishly, which then turned into a frown, her hands finding their ways to her still large abdomen. "The pressure's coming back.. Really fast.."

"Twins are oftentimes born only minutes apart!" Her doctor returned from the counter where the nurse was cleaning off the first born of the twins, and got back into position to catch the next baby. Sasuke retook Sakura's hand knowing fully well that this may be the time where it gets full on broken. At first she gripped his hand as carefully as she could but as the intense pain and pressure were back, she let out a fierce sigh and clutched his hand like it was her life-line.

It was so quick she barely even noticed, but out came the next baby, eager to be with their twin, causing a ruckus with their incessant wailing for air into their newly working lungs. The doctor yet again held the little one up for all to see with a flashy smile. "And here's the little girl! What a good set of lungs she has!" She yet again had Sasuke snip the cord, briefly allowing him to gaze down upon the wailing little baby before handing her off to the nurse to be cleaned up.

The other nurse wrapped her arms around the first twin and made her way over to Sakura's free side, gently handing him over into her anxiously awaiting arms. Sakura cradled him close with tears already streaking down her face with adrenaline and pure love rushing through her veins. "Oh Gods, look at you." The little one in her arms was fully awake, a little intimidated looking, but awake. He stared up unknowingly at his mother with his big, onyx eyes, still twitching from the bright lights above his face. "You are just so perfect..!" She gave Sasuke a side glance. "Do you want to hold him?"

"I'll let you hold him a bit more." He was always so apprehensive about holding newborns right after they were born, especially since Naruto jokingly brought up the point that if you accidentally dropped them you'd '_make a huge dent and probably kill the baby_.' Since he trusted Sakura more than any one else in this world, he'd rather just let her do all of the handling.

"N-no, Sasuke, take him, please." She outstretched her arms to an immediately nervous Sasuke with baffled eyes, cautiously removing the newborn from her arms, glancing between her and his newborn son, who was idly staring into nothing. She returned to placing her hands back onto her abdomen, the doctor taking quick notice to this action and cocking her head.

"Is something the matter?" She questioned as she took a step closer to Sakura.

"It's just the placenta, the contractions are really bad!"

"Hm. Alright." She repositioned herself for the third time in front of Sakura to asses what was going on. "If this is the placenta then it would be an astronomical time for it's delivery, usually they take ten to twenty minutes to come along!"

"Y-yeah.. It just wants to come out.."

As her doctor quietly assessed what was going on down there, Sasuke stared at the two women with slightly wide eyes. He wished he studied more about medical know-how while under chakra arrest so he could understand what was wrong with Sakura when she was in pain or scared about something, because frankly he got a little bit jealous when she relied on others for help, though he then realized it was for the better, knowing he'd end up stalling and being of no assistance to her whatsoever.

The doctor looked back up to face Sakura and Sasuke with slightly startled eyes. "Uh.. It's not a placenta!"

"Well then what the hell is it?!" Sakura groaned as she gripped the metal handrails of her bed, hissing in pain and throwing her head back, fearing the absolute worst.

Sasuke face went as white as a sheet at the sight.

"Well, it's baby number three!" Sakura snapped her head back up just in time for her doctor to stand up with number three wriggling in her arms.

"No no no, there were only t-two!" She stuttered in amazement, looking from her son in Sasuke's arms, the little girl in the nurses arms, and the current one that was still attached to her. "How can this happen?"

"It's possible that the first two were just covering this one, this little boy number two.. The first ultrasounds we had only one, with a few cyst-like things around there, which we had ruled out to be small bubbles of blood, normal. As the pregnancy developed, I notice the twin, which we waited until your 'first' ultrasound to learn.. Both twins had separate placenta's, normal normal.."

Now Sakura's face was as white as a sheet.

"Baby number three must have been hidden form the transducer the entire time!" The doctor laughed nervously as Sasuke was much too shell-shocked to cut the cord of his other newborn son, so she carefully snipped it herself and handed him off to the awaiting nurse. "And he looks to be the identical twin of the first boy!"

"Oh my Goodness..." Sakura wiped her face with her sweaty palms, her bottom lip quivering as she just wanted to cry. Not because she didn't want this baby, or because she didn't like it, but because the pure shock was choking her to death! "I.. I don't know what to say! I was wondering why I was a bit larger than a regular twin pregnancy but.." She glanced over to Sasuke who merely looked straight at the wall with a blank face. She knew that he wanted only one child, two, he bit his tongue and pretended like it wasn't going to be too much work, but three? She could only imagine what he was thinking right about now. "S-Sasuke?"

"Three." He noted with the same, blank voice.

"Yes three, but all three are precious gifts!" She welcomed her newborn daughter with open arms, smiling down as she scanned her little face, big watery black eyes stared back up at her, and Sakura knew she was almost blind, but she could tell her daughter was looking up at her with love. "Asami's little sister she wanted.." Only minutes later Sakura had cautiously taken the third into her arms, glancing down upon his face just as happily, his sleeping little face, which she could clearly see was the identical twin of her first born triplet. "Sasuke look at them!"

He tore his eyes off the white wall across from him and stared down at the two Sakura held carefully in her tired, weak arms, glancing between all three, then between the two boys. She stayed silent, watching his every move, smiling as even though he didn't notice it, his cold eyes were as tender as ever. However much he argued against having three babies, there was no way he'd love them any less than the rest.

When everything calmed and the babies were put to bed, Sasuke finally piped up. "I have names."

...

Later that day Naruto had paid a visit with his own son cradled in his arms. He walked into her delivery room where she and the babies were still being heavily monitored due to fear of any complications, with Sasuke no where in sight. Naruto swaggered in proudly, eyes softening when he saw her in her bed, then his brows furrowed when he noticed Sasuke's absence. "Hey, where's the jerk?" As he drew in closer he had to re-count the number incubator's by her bedside before his jaw fell to the floor. "Um."

"I didn't know either until the last one decided to show up literally out of no where, Naruto!" She grimaced happily as she sat up in her bed, staring fondly at the three little babies that were sleeping, their small chests rising and falling with each small breath they took. "Turns out I accidentally broke Sasuke's hand during the birth.. So I made him go and get that checked out before he could get me a bottle of water from the cafeteria. Here, let me see Neji." She made the famous grabby hands Asami was famous for until Naruto placed Neji into her arms.

"Look at you little guy!" She gushed with a tired smile as she ran her index finger along the little one's small pudgy cheek. "You've got the Uzumaki hair, don't ya?" It was true. Naruto awoke one morning and paced into Neji's nursery to find the first fine hair, not deep purple, not blonde, striking red just like his mothers! "Bright red hair and blue eyes, there's no way you're ever going to get lost!"

Naruto sat on the edge of her bed to face the three incubators, eying the small pieces of paper that identified the three young ones. "Let me guess, Sasuke picked these names."

"Heh, yep, he did."

He stared at the first incubator that contained a little boy with a tiny blue onsie. His sheet of paper identified him as the first born of the three, with his time, weight and height all there, and of course the name his friend had chosen._ Uchiha, Shisui_. He glanced to the middle incubator, which was obviously housing a tiny little girl, as she was wearing a cute pink little onsie that looked suspiciously like Ino had bought it for the two. She was labelled as the second born of the three._ Uchiha, Mikoto_. Then was the last incubator, the mysterious little baby that had evaded the scary transducer, coming into this world with a bang and a pure shock to his parents. He was the third born. He was named,_ Uchiha, Itachi_.

* * *

_THREE. Clich, right? There's always that one fanfic out of five that has a surprise twin or triplet. Why not both I say. Sorry to the people that didn't particularly want the babies to be named after Sasuke's dead family, but in my head I don't see it as a problem, and Sasuke is an honorary dude, so I think that he'd honor those he loved by naming his own precious wee ones after them.  
PS. It was originally going to be twins but so many people wanted twin boys. I was going to make it a boy and a girl because I love boy and girl twins, then I realized some more.. I really want twin boys, but I really want little Mikoto in there, so in the middle of the fic I just went with what I felt like I had to do. I totally BS'ed the hidden baby part, there's no way you'd get away with not seeing another baby but for the stories sake, it had to happen!  
_

_As always, I'm constantly loving your reviews! Thoughts on today's chapter? There was a total of **five babies that were born**! Opinions? Anything that will make me smile? _

_So I had the surgery yesterday and turns out it's not all that bad. No pain if your doctor isn't a jerk and prescribes you good pain medications, and you don't remember a thing! Honestly my extraction sites only bled for about seven hours before stopping, which compared to other people's stories about how they bled for a few days before it completely stopped, was pretty good. The only thing I'd advise you to do is EAT WHAT YOU LOVE BEFOREHAND. I'm starving and I wished I had a burger before the procedure... (sadface)_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!_


	19. Chapter 19

Handful

-chapter 19-

rated for language / adult themes

* * *

Sasuke looked as if he wanted to kill himself. On the outside that's what he unknowingly portrayed but on the inside, they didn't know that he truly did want to kill himself. Two children were enough for him, currently. Mako is energetic, and on some days he could handle that because he could put it to good use when he wanted to train the boy. Asami was sociable and liked to go on walks. Walks he could handle, and with Mako towing right behind it got both of them tuckered out before their midday nap. Already it was a lot of work to keep his eyes on those two, especially when it grew eerily quiet in the house and he feared they found a hole in the old cobble fence, so he'd spend a good few minutes of his work paper devoted time to go and gather them up. The two of them gave him something to do, not_ too_ much, not too less where he grew bored of constantly being the stay-at-home dad he was labeling himself as.

Now when Sakura had confided in him that she had hidden her fourth pregnancy from him to wait and see if this would would prove fruitless, he was a tad irked. At first it was only because he felt slightly offended that she hadn't told her own husband this kind of information earlier, regardless of whatever feelings it would provoke within him. When he could see how distraught she was over keeping it a secret from him, he finally told himself to just forget about it. The next thing he remembered? Oh right - she was pregnant. That night after she had fallen asleep in his arms he stayed awake until the wee hours of the morning, planning his next course of action. If two was enough to him, what would a third be? A lot of hard work, that's what that baby would be. It's not that he didn't love this baby because he absolutely did love it - but he was only one person and when Sakura would want to return to the hospital he knew he was going to be stuck with three babies. Three was an odd number to him. He only had two arms to pick up two kids when they would run around the house, and only two legs when they would whine about wanting to sit on his lap. He was going to have to find out a new way of pleasing the little rascals without one feeling left out. He deemed that planning for another day.

The day they arrived at the medical office of the obstetrician in the hospital he wasn't expecting too much. Now that wasn't saying that seeing his unborn child wasn't amazing, but he didn't have his hopes up for seeing something incredibly out of the ordinary. That's when it became four. Four at least was an even number, though it was still one more crying little baby that had it's hopes set out to ruin his sleeping schedule and puke and pee all over him, so of course he was dreading the extra work x2. Still, it was another child that he thanked the Gods for.

When his second born son was born he couldn't feel happier, he wasn't sure if there was a point happier than what he felt. From the woman he loved came (so far) his three absolutely beautiful and healthy children. As the little boy cried in the doctors arms as he snipped the cord that connected him to his mother, he could see between his cries those big black eyes that finally surfaced, unlike his first two children. He took his seat beside Sakura and although his hand throbbed like never before, he retook her hand as she went right back to pushing that last baby out of her.

When his second daughter was born, it was a totally surreal and completely different feeling than with his sons. It was something he just couldn't put his finger on. He used to think girls were these fragile things that had to be taken care of, and clearly he knew many women that were indeed strong and only one that could actually kick his ass, so he tried to fit that image into his first born daughter and she was fragile and helpless and obviously needed his help to protect her. So out came his second daughter, still tiny and cute, and he already got these future glimpses of her life and how he_ hated_ future boys, so he already got this fatherly urge to watch over both of them.

He found something amazing in holding his newborn child for the first time despite his anxiousness. It was weird to think that Mako used to be this small and delicate, a huge difference, seeing as how now he crashed into things on a minute basis, flew down the stairs, was catching onto his training. It was a delight to see that what he and Sakura were doing was actually working, and that miraculously haven't gotten gravely injured under his watch.

Then something went wrong when Sakura looked immensely distressed although she had already popped both of the children out. He pursed his lips together as she tried hi best to analyze the screens and flashing buttons everywhere and he immediately reprimanded himself for not studying pregnancy further. So he watched helplessly (usually he was not helpless so he was at a total loss) as something was wrong with Sakura and even the doctor had no idea what was going on, which was a bad sign. He held his son closer as he squinted at Sakura nervously, and when he swapped his glance from her to the doctor is when he saw it.

A fifth.

A fifth that Sakura had not seen yet, only just being pulled from her loins in the doctors gloved hands, it's limbs flailing about as it's cries filled the stale, quiet air. He wasn't sure that was right. He looked down in his arms where the first of the (twins?) lay, looking around quietly. Then he glanced to the counter, where his new daughter was being swaddled in a pink and white polka dot blanket. His brows furrowed. Triplets. Triplets plus two? Five. Five? Was his math just going numb? No. He knew how to count. Five.

From her body she produced three babies, all at the same time. He thought that just being able to have two healthy kids from different pregnancies was utterly amazing, but harboring three heavily little babies inside of her then pushing them out? Was she superwoman or what. So when she looked up at him and uttered his name, all he could say was his blank expression was, "Three."

"Yes three, but all three are precious gifts! Asami's little sister she wanted... Sasuke look at them!" Sakura gushed as she cuddled the two younglings close to her chest, beaming brightly with pride and love for the children she had just produced. She looked amazing.

He studied his first born son, who had evident Uchiha traits. The dark hair matched up with the dark eyes. He smirked to himself because this was the first child born to him that had his own eyes. He had a perfect name for him, but only if it matched up with the other twin boy. The next closest triplet was his daughter in Sakura's arms who's eyelids were fighting to stay open in this big new world she couldn't quite see, her tiny fingers curling around the fuzzy blankets, a new feeling to her. Clearly she had distinctive traits, just like her older triplet, dark eyes and dark hair. Now her name wasn't dependent on her triplets, so her name was set in stone. The last one was just like the others. Small tufts of black hair and glimmering black eyes that stared up at his mother with this oddly adorable affectionate look on his face, looking as if he was apologizing for staying hidden all this time.

"I have names." He told Sakura after a few minutes they spent in the peace and quiet of the room, glancing back down at her as she curiously looked over her shoulder to him.

"Go ahead."

He knew he wasn't going to take a no for an answer because she got to name the first two and he knew he'd beat himself up if he didn't get to use these names at all because let's face it, after that third baby slipped passed the radar both him and Sakura greed in silence that these would be the last babies they'd be having. He'd start on a name he knew she wouldn't mind. "I want her name to be Mikoto."

Sakura smiled at him sweetly, her tired lips curling into that smile he resisted to kiss. "Mmhm~?"

"Him.." He lifted his arms slightly to show her he meant the oldest of the identical twin boys. "I want him to be named Shisui.. Itachi's best friend." He had many reasons for naming his son after the famous Uchiha. "So that leaves him." He looked at the little boy in Sakura's arms. "Itachi." It was simple. Itachi and Shisui were the bestest of friends, considering each other brothers. He knew he couldn't one son named after one and leave one out because that wouldn't work.

A few brief moments passed and instantly he thought she didn't like those names but she continued to smile up at him. He found it hard to read her at times but now it was easy - she didn't not like the names he had decided on, so he smiled and gazed back down at their children.

A little while later Sakura noticed something he did not, the tips of her fingers just barely ghosting against the skin of his hand, her face etched with worry. "What's wrong with your hand?" She whispered, as she sat up. He thought this entire time she was sleeping, as the nurse had helped her breastfeed (all three, yes) of the triplets and get them into their respective incubators. At least he though if he was in her position he'd be sleeping.

"I don't know." His brows furrowed when he studied his right hand. The throbbing died down when he got to hold the elder son of the triplets and since then it had been shoved to the back of his mind, but now as he looked down upon it he did notice something that was not correct. It was red and swollen.

"S-Sasuke, I think I broke your hand!" She gasped as she took it between her hands and surveyed it closely. "I did! You need this checked out before it gets worse!"

"How can it get worse? It's already broken." He wasn't too keen on leaving the room just yet.

"The blood could pool in your hand, you need it checked out." She kissed it with a somewhat guilty expression. "Plus I would love a bottle of water."

He smirked. He wouldn't have gone just to get his hand checked out but if she was thirsty then he knew he had to go and get her the beverage she desired. "Fine."

"Thank you." She whispered dryly and gave him a small kiss on the cheek before curling back up in her bed, watching him leave the room.

When he had gone and had a nurse take a look at his hand, she healed it to the best of her abilities before wrapping it up. Next he went to the cafeteria to find a vending machine so he could get her some water that wasn't stale tap water she was served from a nurse. When he returned back to the room the corners of his mouth turned downwards. "What are _you_ doing here."

"I came here to see the twins, but turns out it was triplets! Good luck with that!" Naruto grimaced as he sat up from his seated position on the edge of Sakura's bed, obviously he was just reading the name cards stuck onto the three incubators. "Seriously, congrats on the three. I heard it's hard for multiples and the mom to survive without at least a tid bit of medication!"

"In some cases, yes." Sakura told him as she smiled lovingly at Sasuke, taking the bottle of fresh water from his extended hand and unscrewing the cap. "Thanks."

He took a seat beside her bed and noticed the child she held in her crooked arm that did not belong to either of them, and instantly Sakura showed him off. "Isn't Neji just adorable?"

"Hn." He took a sip of his own bottled water. "Still not as '_adorable_' as ours."

"Watch it." He heard Naruto threaten from the end of her bed, surprisingly keeping his voice low enough that he didn't wake the triplets. "Hinata sends her congrats too but she's been so busy taking care of Neji that I would have rather her stay at home and get some rest."

"Oh of course. I understand that completely, I don't think I'll be seeing anybody for a long time once I get home!" She laughed heartily as she placed the water beside her on the bed and continued to gush over little Neji, who was trying to grasp at her fingers through his tired eyes.

A few knocks sounded at her door and Naruto was the first up, immediately darting to his feet and wrapped his hands around the knob, gently pulling it open before having it slammed open in his face, only a fury of platinum blonde was seen until the guest stopped in front of Sakura's bed. It was the infamous Ino, with her little baby boy in a front loaded baby backpack. "Sakura!" She whispered furiously, eyes scanning the (three?) incubators beside her bed. She gasped, jaw dropping as she looked back at the pinkette.

Great, Ino was the last person he wanted here while Naruto was present. They were both so incredibly loud he was surprised Sakura didn't forewarn them about the sleeping babies in the room. "Ino~!" Sakura hadn't gotten out of the house since she was present for Ino's delivery, so it had been at least two weeks since the two best friends were together, and a lot has changed.

"Why are there three incubators..." She proceeded to count them until she shook her head. "I didn't count them wrong."

"Heh, turns out they weren't just twins, but triplets!" Sakura explained proudly as she crawled over to the edge of the bed that was closer to the incubators, placing her hands against the glass that separated her from them. "Identical twin boys and a fraternal sister. They're just so perfect..."

"Oh my God.. Three? It's so hard tending to just one!" Ino declared as she too took a seat on the edge of the bed to stare that the new additions, all the while gently petting her own son's tresses of light blonde hair that peeked out from underneath his cap. "Itachi... Mikoto.. Aaand Shisui." Ino smiled fondly as she then looked at her best friend who was just spilling over with pride and love.

"Me and Shikamaru_ finally_ decided on a name."

"Oh yeah? What's this little guy's name?" She beamed as she gently touched the little boy's nose with her index finger.

"Well, both mine and Shikamaru's names are sort-of passed down.. We tried so hard to find a name that would go with both, and we decided that if we can't have both than we wont have either." Her voice turned to a whisper. "Remember that stupid future book we made? Hehe, I chose the first name on my old baby name list."

"I remember the book, I don't remember the name though."

"I named him Kane.. There was that one actor I really loved and that's why I wrote it down.. Of course I'll never tell Shikamaru that, hehe."

"Aweh, little Kane~" Sakura cooed gently as she kissed the top of the little boys head lovingly. "I don't know why, but I think it suits him!"

"Me too!"

After ten minutes had passed there was another knock at the door, now Sasuke was confused as to who it could be. When Naruto carefully opened up the knob with his free hand, he opened it just in time for two little children to run in and immediately ambush their father with questions and hugs. That's when they officially became five, as he had his two first born children already making noise. If their serene ruining questions didn't do it, the appearance of Sakura's father with Mebuki by his side wasn't all that great. So he was somewhat glad his children flocked to him so he could pretend the man didn't exist.

He held his finger up to his lips, his signal to the two rascals that it was time to hush down. The nodded furiously, clasping their tiny hands over their mouths, looking up at their father with pure anticipation, Mako already breaking the rule. "I heard it happened, the stork brought the babies!"

"_Yes_, the stork brought the babies. But they're sleeping, so you have to keep your voices down." It was purely Sakura's idea to introduce the stork.

Asami clambered up onto his lap and craned her neck to the side so she could wave at her mother and auntie and uncle who were crowded around the incubators. With her best whispering voice (which was still partially loud), she communicated. "Are those the babies?" He nodded. "Can we see them?" He shook his head.

"Wait until they're not sleeping." He told her. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kizashi's hateful glare as Sakura announced the appearance of the triplet.

"Wuh?! But everyone is there seeing them and I want to see them too!"

"Asami, what did I say-"

"Asami is right, I wanna see them too!" Mako whined grumpily as he crossed his arms over his chest with a puff of air and stared angrily up at his father. "I wanna see them right now!" His voice was on the threatening verge of becoming unbearably loud.

Grumbling, he picked the two up and set them on the bed, where the clambered off to get in between their auntie Ino and their mother so they could look upon the babies before them. Sakura scooped the two up and showered them in kisses before officially introducing them to their younger siblings. "The stork brought us three babies!"

"Ah, the good ol' stork story." Kizashi chuckled to himself as he proudly looked down upon Sakura. Sasuke found it odd because he looked at Sakura the same way he looked at Asami, or Mikoto.

"The first one the stork brought was the first triplet, Shisui." She pointed to the first incubator, earning an 'oooh' and an 'aaah' from the children. "Shisui has a twin brother, Itachi.." She then pointed to the last incubator, where Itachi lay fast asleep.

"Oh!" Asami clapped, looking up at her mother. "Like Uncle Itachi!?"

"Yes!" Sakura smiled and then pointed to the middle incubator. "Here's their sister, little Mikoto! She was born in between the two!"

"Named after daddy's mommy, right?" Mako then piped up. Sasuke knew he was doing something right since his children could clearly make the connection between the family members.

"Yep!"

"I wanted a baby sister!" Asami cheered quietly as she shimmied closer to the incubators yet closer to Ino and her own baby in her arms, curious as to what this baby was doing here. "What's their name?" Asami smiled sweetly as she gently pet the boys fluffy blonde hair.

"His name is Kane, sweet little Asami!" Ino positioned Kane in her arms to give the toddler a better glance at his round face, his big brown hazely eyes looking between his mother and Asami.

"I like his hair because it looks like yours!"

"He does have cute hair, doesn't he? Hehe!"

Sasuke was just waiting for Kizashi to make another '_brood mare_' comment, or even just the slightest glance in his direction with a foul look upon his face. Even when Sakura announced her pregnancy with Asami, Kizashi wasn't terribly excited for his daughter, feeling as if Sasuke was just using her to _repopulate the cla_n and whatnot, but three new babies seemed like it would push the mans buttons. Yet he only shared a glance with Sasuke once when he entered the room, and not since.

"Oi, Sasuke. You don't look too happy." Naruto gently nudged Sasuke's shin with his right foot as he carefully rocked the baby in his own arms, slightly looking scared that the sleeping little boy was on the verge of waking and crying as loud as he could.

"There's too many people in here." He stated simply. He hated crowded spaces and this tiny delivery room was not large enough for his liking. There were his ...**_ FIVE_** children in the room already, Ino and her kid, Naruto and his damned child, Sakura's parents who hated him, and an over-elated Sakura who seemed like she wanted the entire damn village in this room, regardless of it's capacity. Just once cry or loud word could set off all of those babies, and as if one baby crying wasn't enough, five babies plus two toddlers. He could just imagine it now, all three of those triplets crying uncontrollably and Kizashi commenting on how awful of a parent he was for not getting them to stop easily.

"You should see the people in the waiting room, eheh."

He pressed his lips together into a line. "Well they're not coming in." He glanced over at Sakura. He could clearly see bags under her eyes despite how tough she acted, and how weak her body looked, he didn't like it one bit. He'll be damned if he let her force herself to be composed just for these people. He put his hands on his knees and stood up straight and tall, towering over almost everyone except Kizashi and maybe Naruto was around the same height. He clapped his hands together for a split second to grab everyone's attention and when most eyes were on him, he spoke. "Time to leave."

Everyone was silent for a moment, processing the fact that they were just kicked out. "A-ah, yeah, Sakura you look like you need rest!" Ino stuttered as she stood up. "Plus we wouldn't want to accidentally wake those lil' angels."

"Why are you taking it upon yourself to kick me out of my daughters delivery room." Kizashi crossed his arms over his chest and raised a brow at his son in law, now both men were facing each other from opposite sides of the bed with Sakura sitting between them with a horrified look plastered on her face. "Or are you that possessive?"

"Your daughter just gave birth to three kids earlier and you're insisting on keeping her awake?" He supposed that if his own daughter had a husband like him then he'd probably hate him like Kizashi hated him. "And you're calling me possessive."

The two men glared at each other while the bystanders watched with wide eyes. "Y-you know dad, I am terribly tired." Sakura intervened innocently enough, slowly tugging on Sasuke's sleeve in hopes that he'd understand that she wanted him to calm down. He understood what she wanted, but these people were really getting on his nerves and he wanted Sakura to feel better so this was his only way of helping her. "It'd be better if every one came back when I'm in better shape to actually spend time with you guys." When everyone else had nodded in an understanding manner, Kizashi was the last to finally give in. Everyone left, leaving Sasuke to bear the weight of Sakura's obvious embarrassment.

Mako curled up on his mothers lap as she let out a sigh, rubbing her face in her hands slowly. "Thank you. I'm so tired."

He knew it. "Hn."

"Though, I can sense that you're going to be on his ultimate bad side now." She laughed heartily as she curled up, weary of Mako's tired little body, wrapping her left arm around his frame. "Are you happy you got two baby brothers and another baby sister?"

Tiredly, he nodded as he kicked his feet around to get comfortable. "Yeah! I'm really really happy. But I'm really really tired too. Can I fall asleep with you mommy?"

"Aweh, of course you can." She gave her first born son a kiss on the cheek before cuddling him close until his little eyelids were finally closed. Asami crawled over her mothers legs until she could just barely reach Sasuke's legs, hopping up on those instead of staying on the bed.

Just like her brother she cured up into a perfect little ball and was fast asleep in just a few seconds. With everyone sleeping but him, he wondered when those newborns were finally going to crack open their eyes and roar with unimaginably loud screeches that could and will wake the entire hospital.

* * *

_Not sure if a lot of you were watching the World Cup, but any of those who did, who were you guys rooting for?! Woot woot!  
_

_Not enough Sasuke and Asami time like a ton of people want but it will and shall come later! _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!_


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